One of the most graceful and elegant airliners built and known as the Elizabethan Class, the Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador was designed by a team headed by Arthur (A E) Hagg.

The Airspeed AS-5 Courier, AS-6 Envoy, and AS-8 VICeroy series was built in some numbers by Airspeed Limited in the 1930s, the company, founded by N S Norway and A H Tiltman, proposing a number of designs but settled on the AS-5 Courier in 1931, a low-wing cantilever monoplane seating

The prototype Envoy (G-ACMT – c/n 17), a direct development of the Airspeed Courier, first flew on 26 June 1934 with Wolseley AR.9 Mk II nine-cylinder radial engines, and models were proposed with Gnome-Rhone Titan Major 7Kd radials, or the Wright R-760-E2 Whirlwind engine.