With the help and influence of Dr. Joseph S. Ames, he obtained a transfer to the bureau's Wind Tunnel division, and began taking graduate courses in fluid dynamics 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.

[2] In 1920 Dryden was appointed the director of the Aerodynamics Division of the National Bureau of Standards, a newly created section.

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 (NACA).

He led the development of the "Bat", a radar-homing guided bomb program that was successfully employed in combat in April, 1945 to sink a Japanese destroyer.

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.

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.

Tom Wolfe 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 in the space race.

Wolfe describes President Kennedy as having been in "a terrible funk" at the time of the meeting with James E. Webb, 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 in 1957 and, that month in 1961, had extended to include Yuri Gagarin's Earth-orbital flight.