Previously as Director of the Advanced Air Vehicles Program, Dryer was responsible for the overall planning, management and evaluation of the directorate’s efforts to develop tools, technologies, and concepts that enable new generations of civil aircraft that are safer, more energy efficient, and have a smaller environmental footprint. The program worked to achieve major leaps in the performance of subsonic fixed and rotary wing aircraft to meet growing long-term civil aviation needs, in the concept of low-boom supersonic flight, and in sustaining hypersonic competency for national needs.

Prior to that, he supported the ARMD associate administrator in a broad range of mission directorate activities, including strategic and program planning; budget development; program review and evaluation; and external coordination. He also served as Director of the former Fundamental Aeronautics Program Office, and as Senior Technical Advisor for ARMD, which involved oversight of all ARMD programs and projects in terms of architecture, requirements and budgets, technical reviews and research activities. He also managed the directorate’s extensive NASA Research Announcement process.

During the 1990s, Dryer served in the U.S. Navy’s Nuclear Submarine Force, the Deep Submergence Unit, and Development Squadron Five, specializing in development and operation of unmanned aerial and submersible vehicles. He directed the unmanned sub- mersible vehicle that located the wreck of the U.S.S. Yorktown from World War II, and he also commanded the last survey missions to the sites of the lost U.S.S Thresher and U.S.S Scorpio submarines.