When Curtiss refused to allow more development time, Jack Northrop gathered the 3A fighter's drawings and sold the package to Chance Vought. Vought used the material in its Model 143 and gained experience from Northrop's stressed-skin work, even though the aircraft lost the ensuing competition. Modified Model 143 plans and tooling were later sold to Japan. In his memoir, Heinemann rejects the later belief that the Zero descended from that transfer because its development was already well advanced.
Notable Point · 2:15:41-2:16:42
Northrop's 3A, Vought's Model 143, and the Zero ancestry myth
Heinemann recalls how Northrop's 3A design package passed to Chance Vought and later to Japan, while rejecting the claim that it became the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.