NASA - Dryden Aircraft

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Recently Retired Aircraft

F-15B flying of Borax mine in Boron CA.

Information on recently retired aircraft flown at Dryden Flight Research Center.

Research and Testbed Platforms

F-15B #836

NASA Dryden’s F-15B research testbed aircraft flew the CCIE experimental jet engine inlet to speeds up to Mach 1.74, or about 1.7 times the speed of sound.

The F-15B Research Testbed continues to be an innovative and cost-effective tool for flight test of advanced propulsion concepts.

F/A-18 #853

NASA Dryden's F-18 #853, newly dubbed the Full-scale Advanced Systems Testbed, or FAST aircraft, began Research Flight Control System checkout flights recently for NASA's Integrated Resilient Aircraft Controls (IRAC) project.

NASA's F-18 #853 is a former Navy F/A-18A fighter plane modified by Dryden technicians that now performs research duties.

Science Platforms

DC-8 Airborne Science Laboratory

DC-8 ASCENDS II Mission - This spectacular view of a large glacier in British Columbia, Canada, was captured from NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory during one of the ASCENDS II atmospheric sampling instrument validation flights. July 2011

NASA's Airborne Science Program and the National Suborbital Education and Research Center (NSERC) at the University of North Dakota jointly manage science operations of NASA’s DC-8 Airborne Science ...

ER-2 High-Altitude Platform

ER-2 in flight over desert

NASA is operating two Lockheed ER-2 Earth resources aircraft as flying laboratories in the Sub-Orbital Science Program under the Agency's Science Mission Directorate.

Gulfstream-III UAVSAR

G-III banking with UAVSAR attached

The Unmanned Air Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) is an Earth Science Capabilities Demonstration project jointly developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Dryden Flight Research ...

SOFIA

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy 747SP sits beneath a full moon during nighttime telescope operations at NASA’s Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility, Palmdale, CA.

NASA is developing the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy - or SOFIA - as a world-class airborne observatory that will complement the Hubble, Spitzer, Herschel and James Webb space ...

Support Aircraft

F-15D Support Aircraft

F-15D in flight

Dryden currently flies an F-15D Eagle aircraft for research support and pilot proficiency.

F-18 Support Aircraft

F-18 Hornet in flight

Dryden currently flies three F-18 Hornet aircraft for research support and pilot proficiency.

Super KingAir

King Air in flight over Rogers Dry Lake Bed.

The Beechcraft Beech 200 Super KingAir aircraft (N7NA and N801NA) have been support aircraft at the Dryden Flight Research Center for many years.

T-34C

Chase aircraft such as the T-34C accompany research flights for photography and video purposes.

Dryden's mission support T-34C aircraft accompanies research flights for photography and video data collection, and also as safety chase.

Unmanned Aerial Systems

Global Hawk

NASA Dryden maintains two Global Hawk aircraft for use on high-altitude, long-endurance environmental science missions.
Ikhana

NASA operates this modified Predator B to conduct long-duration Earth science missions and validate promising aeronautical technologies.

Multimedia

Dryden Photo Gallery

Dryden's Photo Gallery contains digitized photos and illustrations of many of the unique research aircraft flown at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center from the 1940s to the present.
Dryden Movie Gallery →

Dryden's Movie Gallery contains short digitized video clips of many of the unique research aircraft flown at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center from the 1940s to the present.
X-Planes Overview (Flash)

An interactive overview of the experimental X-Planes flown at Dryden Flight Research Center over the last several decades.