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This division of North American Aviation began operations as the company's Technical Research Facility just after World War II; its purpose was twofold: to test the components of V-2 rockets captured from the Germans during World War II, and to develop guided missile engine systems. In 1946, this facility began work on the SM-64 Navaho (originally called the MX-770), a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project, based on the V-2's technology. Its initial purpose was to carry a nuclear warhead 500 miles; in 1947, NAA designed the missile to cover twice the distance and carry twice the weight of the V-2. Between 1947-1957, NAA continually improved on the liquid-fuel rocket's payload capacity and range. The SM-64 Navaho program was terminated on 07/13/1957, but the rocket booster technology and inertial guidance systems were reused in other military and aerospace applications. (The Redstone Rocket, produced by Wernher Von Braun and other captured Nazi scientists working for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency's [ABMA] Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, AL, won government contracts over the Navaho.) Various aspects of the Navaho's propulsion system, however, were adapted into the Atlas, Thor and Titan rocket engines used for various purposes. (Atlas engines, for example, powered the SM-65 Atlas ICBM in 1957 and the pioneering Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment (SCORE) communication satellite in 1958.) NAA renamed this laboratory/office complex, Rocketdyne, in 1955, as it geared up for full-scale production of its liquid-fuel rocket engines; it is not a stretch to say that this laboratory/manufacturing plant had a very important place in creating the space age. During a lull in the dispensation of military contracts in the mid-1960s, NAA merged with Rockwell Corporation in 1966, to form North American Rockwell (later called Rockwell International). Rockwell International became an important aerospace contractor for the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs. Rockwell sold Rocketdyne to Boeing in 1996, and it, in turn, sold the Rocketdyne division to the Pratt and Whitney Division of United Technologies Corporation in 08/2005.

PCAD id: 2638