PLAN POISES FLIGHT CENTER FOR GROWTH : DRYDEN MAY ADD WORKERS.

Byline: Jim Skeen Daily News Staff Writer

While other NASA research centers are looking at declining or status quo budgets, Dryden Flight Research Center is likely to grow - a reflection of the space agency's renewed interest in aeronautics.

Under the Clinton administration's 1998 budget request submitted to Congress, funding for aeronautics and technology research at Dryden would increase from $55.4 million this year to $72.5 million next year. The budget request shows Dryden growing from 575 workers to 616 in 1998 - making it the only NASA center to increase its payroll.

The 1998 budget proposal calls for NASA to spend $5.6 billion on science, aeronautics and technology research, up from $5.4 billion this year.

An issue yet to be resolved is if NASA will be allowed by Congress to relocate 21 aircraft and 290 employees from research centers elsewhere in the United States to Dryden.

NASA wants to consolidate its research aircraft at Dryden, arguing that having them in one place will be cheaper, but the Senate forbid NASA to spend any money on that effort because of concerns over whether the move will actually be cost-effective.

``This issue being open is not good for the agency,'' said Dryden Director Ken Szalai. ``People need to know if they need to sell their homes.''

A NASA inspector general report released in September stated the move would cost NASA $11.3 million initially and would save only $218,049 annually - meaning it would take 52 years for the agency to recoup its costs.

NASA management, however, believes consolidating aircraft operations will result in nonrecurring costs of $8 million and provide an annual savings of $4.5 million. The move would pay for itself in less than three years.

Dryden and the Air Force are nearing completion of an agreement that would allow Dryden to use the hangar formerly occupied by the C-17 transport test program at Edwards. With that hangar, Dryden will not have to build a hangar to house the additional aircraft, Szalai said.

Szalai expects that the report released Wednesday by the White House Committee on Aviation Safety will heighten NASA's interest in aircraft safety.

One role Dryden could play in that area is to do further research into finding ways to keep an aircraft aloft after a catastrophic system failure, such as a breakdown of the hydraulic controls used in steering.

Dryden has done research showing it is possible for an aircraft to be steered to a safe landing using only its engines.

The research, conducted first with a modified F-15 fighter and then later with a McDonnell Douglas jetliner, showed it would be possible for an aircraft to land safely if there were a problem with flight controls.

That work was prompted in part by the 1989 Sioux City, Iowa, crash-landing of a DC-10 airliner after a midair engine explosion severed steering control lines. The pilots maneuvered the airliner to the airport using the two remaining engines, but in landing it cartwheeled down the runway, killing 111 passengers.