The induction ceremony, which featured former Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy as keynote speaker, was held April 15 in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Digital Fly-By-Wire – or DFBW – flight control technology is a computerized system used today on many civil and military aircraft that provides real-time analysis of control inputs made by pilots. Multiple flight control computers continuously evaluate aircraft speed, weight, atmospheric conditions and other variables to arrive at optimum flight control surface deflections that will achieve what the pilot has requested. Pilot inputs are filtered through a digital computer to the hydraulic actuators that actually move an aircraft's flight controls.

"Digital Fly-By-Wire had its origins in the Apollo program," said NASA Dryden center director David McBride, who received the award on behalf of NASA and the center. "Rugged and reliable flight avionics developed for our space mission to the moon was brought to an aviation application by Neil Armstrong while he served as NASA's Deputy Associate Administrator for Aeronautics after his lunar triumph.

"The validation work performed at Dryden enabled the technology to return to space as the space shuttle flight control system," McBride added. "The application of the technology at Dryden continues to impact the safe and efficient operation of nearly all modern aircraft."

Digital flight control systems improve flight safety through use of redundant systems. They also improve aircraft maneuverability because computers can command adjustments more quickly than human pilots. With DFBW technology, aircraft designers are no longer confined to designing features that make aircraft more stable but less maneuverable.

In airliners, computerized flight controls ensure a smoother ride than traditional hydro-mechanical systems alone can provide.

Digital flight control systems are also more efficient because they are lighter and require less volume aboard aircraft than hydraulic or mechanical controls. This serves to either reduce the amount of fuel required to fly with extra weight or accommodate a larger payload. Digital flight controls also generally require less maintenance than the systems they replace.

Now retired from NASA, the DFBW project’s chief research pilot, Gary Krier, remembers the significance of the work begun 38 years ago.

"We at the Flight Research Center knew that successful implementation of Digital Fly-By-Wire would turn imagination into reality," Krier said. "We could envision control-configured vehicles and aircraft with lightweight, reliable and expandable control systems being enabled by this technology. We were confident we could do it, and do it first.

"Everyone who worked on the program has to be pleased at the recognition of our efforts by the Space Foundation," he added.

NASA’s DFBW flight-test program encompassed 210 research flights over a 13-year period from May 1972 through April 1985. The heart of the system was an off-the-shelf backup digital flight-control computer and inertial sensing unit obtained from the Apollo space flight program that transmitted pilot inputs to control surface actuators. The now-retired test aircraft, a modified Vought F-8C Crusader jet fighter obtained from the Navy for the project, is on public display at NASA Dryden.

In cooperation with NASA, The Space Foundation created the Space Technology Hall of Fame® in 1988 to increase public awareness of the benefits resulting from space exploration programs and to encourage further innovation. To date, 61 technologies have been inducted into the foundation's Hall of Fame, honoring the organizations and individuals who transformed space technology into commercial products that improve the quality of life for all humanity.