. . we went through scrap bins to get wire." Failures in the program Boeing engineers with the GAPA program, which occupied the pad adjacent to the NATIV effort, jokingly deemed the missile "North American Tried In Vain", and after launch failures, labeled it as "Not Able To Increase Velocity." The NATIV was so primitive that there was little provision for range safety. There was no destruct system so if the missile was tracked on an incorrect trajectory by the SCR-584 radars, the only provision to terminate the flight was to shut down the engine by command. The surviving data about the NATIV portion of the MX-770 project is sparse and often contradictory. Though mention is made in some sources of 20 rockets, there is only record of six attempts to launch NATIV. On the basis of "successful" flights the NATIV missile was a resounding failure. Two flights totally failed, three missiles largely failed, and only one flight succeeded partially. Legacy However, the program might well be considered a partial success in that on several missions telemetry of data occurred which was after all was one of the major objectives of the North American Test Instrumentation Vehicle. Under USAF control MX-770 developed into WS-104A which developed the successful RTV-A-5 or X-10 research vehicle, and the much less successful Navaho II (XSSM-A-4, or G-26). A product of project number MX-770, NATIV - the North American Test Instrument Vehicle - was influenced by the design of the Wasserfall surface-to-air missile developed in Germany during World War II. Used as a test vehicle for missile technology on behalf of the SM-64 Navaho project, information on the results of the NATIV project are inconsistent, with some sources claiming six successes of 20 launch attempts, while others suggest only one of six launch attempts was a partial success. NATIV was a highly classified program in a highly classified subject and as a result, little hard fact was publicized at the time. By the time the information could be declassified development in the field had made it irrelevant. While almost lost in the history of missile development in the United States NATIV, RTV-A-3, was important for what it was a contributing portion of, both in telemetry and the greater MX-770 program. References Notes Bibliography Werrell, Kenneth P. The Evolution of the Cruise Missile. Montgomery, Alabama: Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base. 1985. http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA162646. Experimental rockets of