Talk:RTV-A-3 NATIV

Editing RTV-A-3 explained
The RTV-A-3 / NATIV article was both very inadequate and the subject is extremly difficult to research. Any early guided missile program of the United States in the 1940s is difficult to research for several reasons. The first being that there was little press coverage at the time and even less treatment of the era since. That problem with NATIV is amplified by the fact that it was a far less than successful enterprise. Add to that the gloomy prospect the danger presented by the dreaded “original research” ban which is imposed by Wikipedia and might well be imposed upon any effort to add researched “facts” using source material which is sparse under any circumstance. As evidence of the difficulty I offer Andrew McMiilen’s Project NATIV effort at http://www.macmillen.com/rocketry/nativ/ Mr. McMillan has derived a list of flights numbering 7 from almost as many sources. Two flights list solid propellant, one RFNA/Alcohol and 2 are listed as acid/aniline. He also lists three different lengths 13, 13.35 and 14.5 feet. Peter Alway’s “In The Shadow of the V-2” entry of the NATIV is interesting but there are very few copies surviving and it contains errors as apparently do most if not all “sources.” How many were built? How many flights were attempted? Were any more than four anything but abject failure if they ever were flown? It is because of these difficulties that any attempt to improve upon this inadequate article is most difficult. I am attempting to derive as close as I may the nature and details of the NATIV program which was an early but important portion of the MX-770 program. That it contributed to the development of the G-26 / SM-64 Navajo II is quite clear. That it was through it’s development a contributor to the development of test instrumentation and telemetry is also very clear. That it was also a disappointment and largely failed as a flight vehicle is also clear. When the USAF publication “We Develop Missiles Not Air! The Legacy of Early Missile, Rocket, Instrumentation, and Aeromedical Research Development at Holloman Air Force Base” contains such errors as “Officially it was known as MX-773” (pg 25). MX-773 was a Republic program in four flavors MX-773-A, MX-773-B, MX-773-B1 and MX-733-B3, none of which ever amounted to anything but paper. Is this error merely a typo? it would take a reach of a different finger of a different hand to mistake a 3 for a 0. If Air Force Historians have problems what might others have? NATIV was part of a large and long lasting Air Force program involving not only the RTV-A-3 NATIV but various supersonic long-range surface-to-surface cruise missiles variously designated as RTV-A-5, X-10,  XSSM-A-2,  XSSM-A-4,  XB-64,  XSM-64,  XSSM-A-6,  XB-64A,  XSM-64A and lest I forget MX-702B. NATIV was not the only flight vehicle MX-770 produced. There were other flight vehicles RTV-A-5 aka X-10 (MX-770), XSSM-A-4 aka XB-64 aka Navajo II aka (MX-770-A), and some hardware for XSSM-A-6 aka XB-64A aka Navajo III aka (MX-770-B). It appear that the Holloman history may be incorrect in saying NATIV resulted in the dropping of rockets for propulsion by the MX-770 Navajo program. While the NATIV used a development of the Aerojet 21AL-2600, the booster for the G-26 Navajo II used the Rocketdyne LR-83 which was the progenitor of the LR-89 of Thor and Atlas fame as well as the S-3 of Saturn I and S-3D of the Jupiter. The MX-770 program was extremely important in the history of American guided missiles though it failed miserably to produce a single guided weapon. Researching the RTV-A-3 NATIV missile is a task of some difficulty. Doing so utilizing “sources” which allow one to evade the dreaded Original Research” appellation is more so. The Bibliography is extensive as I have included most of the best such sources available. When a government publication is also available as a printed book I have cited the government publication as they are usually easily available for the taxes Americans have already paid. For those who would prefer paying for a had copy it will quickly be supplied by an internet search for the title. To locate the government pdf I recommend the Defense Technical Information Center https://discover.dtic.mil or the Internet Archive https://archive.org. For Army missiles try starting with https://web.archive.org/web/20060618191313/http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/missile/missiler.html and https://web.archive.org/web/20060618191313/http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/pdf/welcome.html. There is always JSTOR https://www.jstor.org. Good luck!

Mark Lincoln (talk) 20:37, 31 January 2020 (UTC)