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Dryden Flight Research Center
P.O. Box 273
Edwards, California 93523
Voice   661-276-3449
FAX     661-276-3566

Frederick A. Johnsen, News Chief       For release:
NASA Dryden Flight Research Center     March 7, 2003
Phone: (661) 276-3449

Release: 03-14

NASA DRYDEN RECOGNIZED FOR FLY-BY-WIRE DEVELOPMENT

NASA's pioneering digital flight control research was recently honored 
with an award by the Air Force Association.

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center Associate Director Richard
Christiansen received the Ira Eaker Fellow recognition award for
fly-by-wire development on the Center's behalf from the Central
Florida Chapter of the Air Force Association (AFA) and the Aerospace
Education Foundation.

NASA Dryden, located at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., researched and 
flight-tested this technology during the Digital Fly-By-Wire (DFBW) 
program, which lasted from 1972 to 1985.

The award, along with four others given by the AFA to recognize
significant technology contributions to aviation, was presented during 
the 19th annual AFA gala held Feb. 14, 2003, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

The General Ira C. Eaker fellowship program was established in 1981 by 
the AFA to perpetuate knowledge of the rich military and civilian
aerospace history of the United States of America.

"I believe this honor commemorates the innovation, engineering
excellence and can-do spirit of all the men and women of NASA Dryden,
past and present," Christiansen said. "It also validates my belief
that our long heritage of close cooperation and partnership with the
U.S. Air Force has great value to each of our missions for the
country."

On May 25, 1972, Dryden's highly-modified F-8 DFBW research aircraft,
with pilot Gary Krier at the controls, became the world's first
aircraft to fly completely dependent upon an electronic flight control 
system.

The DFBW concept, now commonly known as Digital Flight Control
Systems, used an electronic flight-control system coupled with a
digital computer to replace conventional flight controls. Dryden's
work paved the way for the common use of digital flight control
systems now used on the Space Shuttles and on today's military and
civil aircraft, making them safer, more maneuverable, and more
efficient.

Modern digital flight control systems make flying safer for both civil 
and military aircraft because of redundancies. Multiple computers 
"vote" instantaneously to choose the correct control input for 
maneuvers requested by the pilot, who uses the traditional stick and 
rudder controls in the cockpit. Digital systems make aircraft more 
maneuverable because computers command more frequent adjustments than 
human pilots.  Aircraft designers are no longer confined to designing 
features that make the aircraft more stable and thus harder to 
maneuver. For airliners, computerized flight controls ensure a
smoother ride than a pilot alone could provide.

                                 - NASA-
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