Vought V - 141 The Vought V - 141 ( which was later redesignated V - 143 after modification ) was a prototype American single - seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s . It was a development of the unsuccessful Northrop 3 - A design , but was itself a failure , being rejected by the United States Army Air Corps . The sole prototype was sold to the Japanese Army in 1937 , but no production followed , with the type proving to be inferior to existing Japanese fighters . Design and development . In 1935 , Northrop had flown the Northrop 3A , a single - engined , single - seat monoplane with a retractable undercarriage , to meet a United States Army Air Corps ( USAAC ) requirement for a single - seat fighter . This was a development of Northrop ' s XFT prototype carrier fighter , and shared the XFT ' s instability and tendency to enter spins . The sole Northrop 3A prototype disappeared during a test flight over the Pacific on 30 July 1935 , and Northrop decided to abandon further development of the 3A . The Air Corps ' requirement for a new fighter was still outstanding however , with final evaluation being delayed several times . Despite the warnings of his engineers , Eugene Wright , President of Vought , decided to buy the 3A project from Northrop with the hope of winning orders from the Air Corps , the purchase being agreed early in 1936 . Vought ' s design team had little time to work on the new fighter if it was to compete in the Air Corps competition , and changes made to the design purchased from Northrop were relatively small , with an enlarged rudder being fitted in a bid to solve the handling problems of the XFT and 3A , while the undercarriage and engine cowling were also modified . In this form , the prototype fighter , designated Vought V - 141 by the manufacturer , made its maiden flight on 29 March 1936 , piloted by Paul S Baker . Like the 3A , the V - 141 was a low - wing monoplane with a retractable tailwheel undercarriage and an enclosed cockpit . It was powered by a 750 hp ( 560 kW ) Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp Junior radial engine , a slightly more powerful version of the engine that powered the 3A . The competing bids were evaluated by the Air Corps in April 1936 . Vought offered to sell V - 141s at a unit price of $ 34 , 148 for a batch of 25 aircraft ( excluding engines and Government provided equipment ) , reducing to $ 16 , 041 for a batch of 200 aircraft . Testing showed that the V - 141 still had poor handling and was prone to spinning , and also suffered from tail flutter , leading to the Vought design being rejected . The primary winner of the competition was Seversky , with 77 P - 35 s being ordered . Vought then decided to offer its fighter for export , modifying it with larger tail surfaces and renaming it the Vought V - 143 . This was offered to Argentina as a replacement for its obsolete Dewoitine D . 21 s . When it came to be tested in Argentina , Curtiss - Wright representatives , eager to sell the Curtiss 75 , pointed out that the Vought was fitted with an anti - spin parachute in the tail . When the Argentines demanded that the spin characteristics be demonstrated without the anti - spin parachute , Vought refused , and the Curtiss 75 was selected by the Argentines instead . Further rejections from Turkey , Norway and Yugoslavia followed . This led to Vought , in an attempt to solve the fighter ' s handling problems once and for all , to rebuild the aircraft again in May 1937 , with a lengthened rear fuselage and a new taller tail resembling that of the Vought SB2U . The engine was replaced by a 825 hp ( 615 kW ) R - 1535 - SB4G . Thus modified , the V - 143 was tested again by the USAAC in June 1937 but was rejected again . The V - 143 prototype was finally purchased by Japan in July 1937 for $ 175 , 000 . It was tested by the Japanese Navy as the Navy Experimental Fighter Type V ( short designation AXV1 ) , but found to be inferior to existing Japanese fighters .