The Envoy was a four-seat version of the
Sportwing. It had low wings fitted with wire bracing from fuselage points just below the cabin windows. The
conventional, fixed tailwheel undercarriage was fitted with streamlined spats on the main gear. The low-set tailplane was braced by wires from the middle of the fin.
Four civil examples were completed from 1934. These were fitted with a 300 h.p. Kinner C-7 engine and were sold to civil pilot owners. The civil aircraft were followed in 1936 by three aircraft for the
United States Navy (USN) for use in communications work and designated XRK-1.[1] The USN machines served until the early years of
World War II. The
Imperial Japanese Navy evaluated a single example as the LXK.
When they were delivered the USN examples were fitted with a 340 h.p. Kinner R-1044-2 engine, but one example used for VIP transport was later fitted with a 400 h.p.
Pratt & Whitney R-985-38 radial engine.[2]
The C-7 was the last of Kinner's production models.[3]
1 X as second letter is for experimental aircraft or imported technology demonstrators not intended for service,
2 Hyphenated trailing letter (-J, -K, -L, -N or -S) denotes design modified for secondary role, 3 Possibly incorrect designation, but used in many sources