Background
Hugh Latimer Dryden was born at Pocomoke City, Maryland, United States on July 2, 1898 to Samuel Isaac and Nova Hill Culver Dryden. During the financial panic of 1907, his father lost his job and the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
Hugh Latimer Dryden was born at Pocomoke City, Maryland, United States on July 2, 1898 to Samuel Isaac and Nova Hill Culver Dryden. During the financial panic of 1907, his father lost his job and the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland.
He was educated at Johns Hopkins University, receiving the Ph. D. degree in 1919.
He joined the National Bureau of Standards in Washington in 1918, becoming assistant director, then associate director, of the bureau in 1946. He became director of aeronautical research of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1947, and was appointed director of the committee two years later. As early as 1924 Dryden studied the characteristics of airfoils at very high speeds, and his investigations of turbulence in wind tunnels and the mechanics of the boundary layer increased the accuracy of wind-tunnel tests, leading to improved design in airplanes and in the prediction of their performance. During and after World War II Dryden directed the guided-missiles program of the National Bureau of Standards and, as a member of the Army Air Forces' scientific advisory group, brought his knowledge of guided missiles to the analysis of the development reached in enemy guided-missiles projects and in supersonic-missiles research. In 1941 Dryden became editor of the Journal of the Aerospace Sciences.
Army Air Forces
He married Mary Libbie Travers, and the couple had four children.