The P.71A was the successor to the Boulton & Paul's first attempt to meet the airline requirement, the P.64 Mailplane.

The P.71A was lighter, slimmer and longer and used Armstrong Siddeley Jaguar IVA radial piston engines.

Two aircraft were built and delivered to Imperial Airways at Croydon Airport in February 1935.

The airline had lost interest in using them as mailplanes, so the two aircraft were converted as VIP transports with 13 removable seats.

The first aircraft, registered G-ACOX and named Boadicea after the Briton queen of that name, was lost in the English Channel on 25 September 1936 while on an air-mail flight from Croydon to Paris with the loss of the two crew.