X-Press Editor

Jay Levine
P O Box 273
MS 4838
Edwards, CA 93523
(661) 276-3459
Jay.Levine-1@nasa.gov

Dryden News

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X-tra: The Ikhana

New Heights: Multi-Faceted Aircraft Offers Flexibility ...

Ikhana flies over the high desert.

The Ikhana project's new manager has a special appreciation for the unique aircraft's potential.

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COA: Before it Flies in the Same Skies as Piloted Aircr...

Ikhana crew chief Joe Kinn gives the aircraft a final check.

Meeting complex requirements for the Ikhana to enter the national airspace, where piloted aircraft fly, has become Greg Buoni's area of expertise.

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Measuring up to the Gold Standard

fiber optic wing shape sensor team

The Ikhana uninhabited aircraft system is flying research missions with an advanced sensing technology installed on its wings that measures and displays the shape of the aircraft's wings in flight.

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No One on Board: Ikhana Pilots Fly Aircraft from the Gr...

Ikhana pilots Herman Posada, left, and Mark Pestana.

Guiding a mission remotely from a ground cockpit without the feel, smells and sounds of a traditional aircraft and the environment in which it flies is a challenge routinely tackled by Dryden Ikhana p...

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X-Press: Featured Articles

  • The SOFIA flies a second checkout flight from Waco, Texas.

    The SOFIA: Key Events May Lead to First Science Data in About Two Years

    The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA made its debut at Dryden June 27 following three successful checkout flights in Waco, Texas

  • Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, unveils a plaque rededicating NASA's SOFIA aircraft as

    Lindbergh Legacy: NASA 747SP Honors Aviator's Feat

    Excitement is a cure for apathy and that's what Erik Lindbergh, grandson of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh, believes NASA's new airborne observatory will bring to the world.

  • photo of milky way galaxy

    Science of the SOFIA

    The only thing more impressive than an airborne observatory that carries a 17-metric-ton telescope is the potential for equally weighty new breakthroughs in astronomy.

  • Dietmar Lilienthal (foreground, gesturing), German program manager for the SOFIA, points out a feature of the NASA 747SP to a group of German dignitaries.

    Science Alliance

    For as long as humans have stared up into the night sky, curiosity about the heavens has drawn their gaze. It is this fundamental need to know the unknown - and a desire for the ever-larger telescopes needed to find it - that has led Americans and Germans to forge a partnership aimed at unlocking the mysteries of the heavens.

  • A NASA 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft departs with space shuttle Atlantis securely on top for its return to Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

    A Tale of Two Birds: Chief Pilot Compares the Mighty NASA 747s

    Gordon Fullerton knows a thing or three about specially modified 747 aircraft.

  • Altair in flight

    Earth Science: Dryden Capabilities Contribute to Demonstration Missions

    The Western States Unmanned Aircraft Systems Fire Mission is scheduled to begin Aug. 14.

  • Ian Brooks, a Cranfield Aerospace employee, works on the Boeing Phantom Works X-48B Blended Wing Body aircraft.

    BWB Arrives at Dryden

    Flying wing on steroids could mark the shape of things to come in aviation

  • A carbon-carbon X-37 flaperon qualification unit cools from a maximum test temperature of more than 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

    Hot Structures:

    Dryden's Flight Loads Laboratory is one of the only government facilities available for researching mechanical and thermal loads simultaneously on everything from large structures or systems up to full-sized aircraft.

  • Tony Frackowiak, standing, left, and Tyler Beiter set up the mothership and its underbelly passenger, the Sandia Dart research vehicle

    DART: Flight Research Hits the Mark

    Dryden technicians integrated the Sandia Darts onto the center's utility vehicle aircraft and after several modifications, air launched the Darts from about 3,000 feet in an attempt to characterize the Darts' aerodynamics.

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Spotlight

  • Jack Vechil and Leah Praster of Dryden's Emergency Operations Center are coordinating the center's involvement in the Great California ShakeOut.

    Preparing for the Inevitable

    Dryden's Emergency Operations Center is coordinating the center's involvement in the Great California ShakeOut.

  • Center Director Kevin Petersen, right, gets a tour of the Gift Shop's new Space Race exhibit from Dryden historian/archivist Peter Merlin.

    New Exhibit Opens

    A temporary exhibit titled "Space Race to Space Partnership: The Evolution of U.S.-Russian Relations in Orbit" is now on display in the Dryden Visitor Center and Gift Shop through the end of the year.

  • Retired NASA research pilots Tom McMurtry, Bill Dana and Rogers Smith reminisce during the Lancaster JetHawks Aerospace Appreciation Night.

    Jethawks Honor Dana

    It was Aerospace Appreciation Night Aug. 9 at the Lancaster JetHawks nest at Clear Channel Stadium and Dryden legend Bill Dana was the featured honoree.

  • Vladimir Titov spoke to Dryden Safety Day attendees about his experiences and toured the Orion Abort Flight Test crew module, also known as Pad Abort 1.

    Safety Lessons

    Vladimir Titov, the only living individual to have survived a spacecraft's abort on the launch pad, visited Dryden July 16 to speak about his experiences and view the center's work on the Orion Flight Test crew module, known as Pad Abort 1.

Spotlight Archives