Hugh Dryden
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Hugh Latimer Dryden (July 2, 1898 – December 2, 1965) was an American aeronautical
scientist A scientist is a person who Scientific method, researches to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engag ...
and
civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
. He served as
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Deputy Administrator from August 19, 1958, until his death.


Biography


Early life and education

Dryden was born in
Pocomoke City, Maryland Pocomoke City, dubbed "the friendliest town on the Eastern Shore", is a city in Worcester County, Maryland, Worcester County, Maryland, United States. Although renamed in a burst of civic enthusiasm in 1878, the city is regularly referred to by i ...
, the son of Samuel Isaac and Nova Hill Culver Dryden, and was named after a popular local
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
clergyman. During the financial panic of 1907, his father lost his job and the family moved to
Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...
. As a student, Dryden excelled in
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
. He graduated from Baltimore City College, a
high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
, at the age of 14, and was the youngest student ever to graduate from that school. He was awarded the Peabody Prize for excellence in mathematics. With a
scholarship A scholarship is a form of Student financial aid, financial aid awarded to students for further education. Generally, scholarships are awarded based on a set of criteria such as academic merit, Multiculturalism, diversity and inclusion, athleti ...
, he was admitted to
Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
and graduated with honors after only three years. He earned a
M.S. A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medicine ...
in
physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
in 1916. His
thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
was titled, "Airplanes: An Introduction to the Physical Principles Embodied in their Use."


Career

In 1918, Dryden joined the
National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...
, becoming an inspector of gauges. With the help and influence of Dr. Joseph S. Ames, he obtained a transfer to the bureau's
Wind Tunnel A wind tunnel is "an apparatus for producing a controlled stream of air for conducting aerodynamic experiments". The experiment is conducted in the test section of the wind tunnel and a complete tunnel configuration includes air ducting to and f ...
division, and began taking graduate courses in
fluid dynamics In physics, physical chemistry and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids – liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including (the study of air and other gases in motion ...
to complete his Ph.D. In 1919 at the age of 20, he was awarded his degree in physics and mathematics from Johns Hopkins University, the youngest person ever to have received a doctorate from that institution. His thesis was on the "Air Forces on Circular Cylinders". In 1920 Dryden was appointed the director of the Aerodynamics Division of the National Bureau of Standards, a newly created section. Collaborating with Dr. Lyman J. Briggs, he performed studies of airfoils near the speed of sound. He also performed pioneering aerodynamics research on the problems of airflow,
turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...
, and especially the
boundary layer In physics and fluid mechanics, a boundary layer is the thin layer of fluid in the immediate vicinity of a Boundary (thermodynamic), bounding surface formed by the fluid flowing along the surface. The fluid's interaction with the wall induces ...
phenomenon. His work contributed to the design of the wings for the
P-51 Mustang The North American Aviation P-51 Mustang is an American long-range, single-seat fighter aircraft, fighter and fighter-bomber used during World War II and the Korean War, among other conflicts. The Mustang was designed in 1940 by a team headed ...
, as well as other aircraft designed during
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. By 1934, Dryden was appointed the bureau's Chief of the Mechanics and Sound Division, and in 1939 he became a member of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...
(NACA). With the start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Dryden served in an advisory capacity to the
Air Force An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
. He led the development of the "
Bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...
", a
radar Radar is a system that uses radio waves to determine the distance ('' ranging''), direction ( azimuth and elevation angles), and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It is a radiodetermination method used to detect and track ...
-homing guided bomb program that was successfully employed in combat in April, 1945 to sink a Japanese
destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
. After the war, Dryden became the Director of Aeronautical Research for the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...
(NACA) in 1946. While at the NACA he supervised the development of the
North American X-15 The North American X-15 is a Hypersonic speed, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft which was operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the List of X-planes, X-plane series of ...
, a rocket plane used for research and testing. He also established programs for
V/STOL A vertical and/or short take-off and landing (V/STOL) aircraft is an airplane able to takeoff and landing, take-off or land vertically or on short runways. VTOL, Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft are a subset of V/STOL craft that do ...
aircraft, and studied the problem of atmospheric reentry. He held the position of Director of NACA,
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's predecessor, from 1947 until October 1958. In addition he served on numerous government advisory committees, including the Scientific Advisory Committee to the President. From 1941 until 1956 he was editor of the ''Journal of the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences''. After NACA became NASA, he became the deputy director of that organization, serving until his death. After
John Glenn John Herschel Glenn Jr. (July 18, 1921 – December 8, 2016) was an American Marine Corps aviator, astronaut, businessman, and politician. He was the third American in space and the first to orbit the Earth, circling it three times in 1 ...
's
orbital flight An orbital spaceflight (or orbital flight) is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least one orbit. To do this around the Earth, it must be on a free trajectory which has an altitud ...
, an exchange of letters between President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premiere
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and the Premier of the Soviet Union, Chai ...
led to a series of discussions led by Dryden and Soviet scientist
Anatoli Blagonravov Anatoly Arkadevich Blagonravov (; – 4 February 1975) was a Soviet engineer in the Soviet space program and later a diplomat. He represented the Soviet Union on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS). He work ...
. Their talks in 1962 led to the Dryden-Blagonravov agreement, which was formalized in October of that year, the same time the two countries were in the midst of the
Cuban Missile Crisis The Cuban Missile Crisis, also known as the October Crisis () in Cuba, or the Caribbean Crisis (), was a 13-day confrontation between the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union, when American deployments of Nuclear weapons d ...
. The agreement was formally announced at the United Nations on December 5, 1962. It called for cooperation on the exchange of data from weather satellites, a study of the Earth's magnetic field, and joint tracking of the U.S. Echo II balloon satellite. Unfortunately, as the competition between the two nation's crewed space programs heated up, efforts to further cooperation at that point came to an end. They would be revived in 1969 by NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine and led to the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project.


Death and legacy

He died from cancer on December 2, 1965. Michael Gorn, chief historian at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (now: NASA Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center (AFRC)), described Dryden as a quiet, reserved man who was self-effacing and diligent. He was patient, a good teacher, and effective when collaborating with others. He was also a devout
Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a Protestant Christianity, Christian Christian tradition, tradition whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's brother ...
, who, as a result, had a dislike of self-promotion. He served as a lay minister for his entire adult life. He was married to Mary Libbie Travers, and the couple had four children.
Tom Wolfe Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
credited Dryden with having been the individual who spoke up, with President John F. Kennedy in April, 1961, and suggested that crewed flight to the Moon was the way to "catch up" with the
Soviets The Soviet people () were the citizens and nationals of the Soviet Union. This demonym was presented in the ideology of the country as the "new historical unity of peoples of different nationalities" (). Nationality policy in the Soviet Union ...
in the
space race The Space Race (, ) was a 20th-century competition between the Cold War rivals, the United States and the Soviet Union, to achieve superior spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the ballistic missile-based nuclear arms race between t ...
. Wolfe describes President Kennedy as having been in "a terrible funk" at the time of the meeting with
James E. Webb James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA, Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to Octob ...
, the NASA administrator, and Dryden, his deputy, as the president wrestled with the string of Soviet "firsts" in space flight which had started with
Sputnik 1 Sputnik 1 (, , ''Satellite 1''), sometimes referred to as simply Sputnik, was the first artificial Earth satellite. It was launched into an elliptical low Earth orbit by the Soviet Union on 4 October 1957 as part of the Soviet space program ...
in 1957 and, that month in 1961, had extended to include
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who, aboard the first successful Human spaceflight, crewed sp ...
's Earth-orbital flight. Within a month of the meeting with Webb and Dryden, President Kennedy announced the Apollo Project-scale goal of putting a man on the Moon within 10 years, the goal that Apollo 11 was ultimately to meet. In setting the goal, the president did not credit Dryden's input, according to Wolfe. Dryden is also a founding member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
. Dryden was portrayed by George Bartenieff in the 1998 TV miniseries ''
From the Earth to the Moon ''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' () is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts to build an en ...
''.


Bibliography

Dryden published over a hundred papers and articles. * "Turbulence and the Boundary Layer", Wright Brothers Lecture, 1938. * "The Role of Transition from Laminar to Turbulent Flow in Fluid Mechanics", 1941, proceedings University of Pennsylvania Bicentennial Conference on Fluid Mechanics and Statistical Methods in Engineering. * "Recent advances in the mechanics of boundary layer flow", Academic Press Inc., New York, 1948. * Dryden, Hugh L., and Abbott, Ira H., "The design of low-turbulence wind tunnels", NACA, Technical Note 1755, Nov 1949. * "General Survey of Experimental Aerodynamics", 1956, Dover. * "The International Geophysical Year: Man's most ambitious study of his environment," ''National Geographic'', February 1956, pp. 285–285. * "Footprints on the Moon", ''National Geographic'', March 1964, pp. 356–401.


Awards and honors

* President's Certificate of Merit. * President of the Philosophical Society of Washington, 1934. * Member of the United States
National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
, 1944. * Daniel Guggenheim Medal, 1950. * Member of the
American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
, 1950. *
Wright brothers The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation List of aviation pioneers, pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flyin ...
memorial trophy, 1956. * Baltimore City College Hall of Fame, 1958. * Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
, 1958. * Career Service Award from the National Civil Service League, 1958. *
Elliott Cresson Medal The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848. Th ...
from
The Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and a center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and wikt:statesman, statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin ...
, 1960. * Langley Gold Medal from the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
, 1962. *
National Medal of Science The National Medal of Science is an honor bestowed by the President of the United States to individuals in science and engineering who have made important contributions to the advancement of knowledge in the fields of behavioral science, behavior ...
award in
Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
, 1965. * Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1976. * Inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame in 1973. * Sixteen honorary doctorates. * Member of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
. * Founding Member of the
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
. * The NASA Flight Research Center was renamed the NASA Hugh L. Dryden Flight Research Center on March 26, 1976. This was rescinded on March 1, 2014, when the center was renamed the "Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center." * The Western Aeronautical Test Range at the facility was renamed the NASA Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.An Act to Redesignate the Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center and the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range
/ref> * The crater Dryden on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
is named after him.


References

* Michael Gorn, "A Powerful Friendship: Theodore von Kármán and Hugh L. Dryden", NASA TM-2003-212031. * Michael H. Gorn, "Hugh L. Dryden's Career in Aviation and Space", 1996, Washington, D.C., ''Monographs in Aerospace History''.


External links


Official NASA biography

''Hugh L. Dryden's Career in Aviation and Space''
by Michael H. Gorn




National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dryden, Hugh Latimer 1898 births 1965 deaths Methodists from Maryland 20th-century American engineers Aerodynamicists Founding members of the United States National Academy of Engineering National Medal of Science laureates Collier Trophy recipients Deputy administrators of NASA Baltimore City College alumni Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American fluid dynamicists Fellows of the American Physical Society Lyndon B. Johnson administration personnel Kennedy administration personnel Eisenhower administration personnel Recipients of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service Members of the American Philosophical Society