Its ambitious design, including its unorthodox undercarriage, attracted the attention of the British aviation pioneer, Sir Alan Cobham, who saw it as a suitable aircraft for demonstrating his airborne refuelling techniques for long distances flights.

The Courier quickly proved itself to be of sound design and laudable performance, encouraging Airspeed to commence small quantity production months later.

As the development effort on the Airspeed Ferry airliner was drawing to a close during 1931, company co-founder Hessell Tiltman was keen for the firm to commence another project.

During this era, while some figures felt that the choice led to an increase in aerodynamic performance as well as aesthetic appeal via its cleaner exterior, there were critics within British aviation circles that doubted the economic value of adopting this approach in light of the more complex mechanisms needed for retraction and deployment.

[3] Airspeed's efforts had coincided with those of another British aviation pioneer, Sir Alan Cobham, who was seeking out a suitable aircraft to carry out a long distance flight to India, which was to flown non-stop by using his early airborne refuelling techniques to demonstrate their practicality.

[2] As early as April 1932, talks between Airspeed, Cobham, and Lord Wakefield was underway, leading to a provisional contract being issued for a single aircraft on 6 May 1932.

In particular, the fabrication of its undercarriage had overwhelmingly needed original components that were designed and built internally due to a lack of part availability in the supply chain.

Following its reassembly, the prototype Courier G-ABXN performed its maiden flight on 10 April 1933, piloted by George Stainforth of the Royal Aircraft Establishment.

During the test flight programme, the prototype sustained two minor accidents, in April 1933 at Portsmouth and in June 1933 at RAF Martlesham Heath, being quickly repaired after both occasions.

[8] Having gained confidence in the design's attributes by the prototype's relatively smooth testing experience, Airspeed opted to commenced quantity production of the Courier during the summer of 1933.

[4] It was estimated that the additional weight of the mechanism for retracting and deploying the undercarriage amounted to 30lb, while an increase in cruising speed of 20 MPH was achieved via reduced drag.

[18] At the outbreak of the Second World War, the majority of the surviving Couriers were impressed into the Royal Air Force (RAF), where they were typically used for communications purposes.

On 29 September 1934, G-ACSY of London, Scottish & Provincial Airways Ltd crashed at Shoreham, Kent, United Kingdom, killing all four people on board and injuring two on the ground.