The majority of Envoys were produced by Airspeed at their facility at Portsmouth Aerodrome, Hampshire. The type was also produced overseas in Japan by Mitsubishi following the acquisition of a licence at the company's Nagoya factory; it was locally known as the "Mitsubishi Hinazuru-type Passenger Transport". While many customers of the Envoy were in the civilian sector, where it was used for a variety of purposes from air racing to operating as an airliner, it also found an audience with military operators. The "Convertible Envoy" was developed for South Africa, which sought a model that could be rapidly reconfigured between civilian and military duties, being outfitted for use as a light bomber and reconnaissance aircraft for the latter capacity. The Envoy served as the basis for the Airspeed Oxford, a militarised trainer aircraft operated in large numbers by the Allies in and around the Second World War.