Wyvern folklore is rarely fire-breathing like the four-legged dragon. Sometimes modern fantasy book and media authors have wyverns that are frost-breathing or poison-breathing instead of fire-breathing. The current spelling "wyvern" is not attested before the seventeenth century as "winged two-footed dragon". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it is an alteration of Middle English "wyver" (attested thirteenth century), from Anglo-French "wivre" (cf. French "guivre" and "vouivre"), which originate from Latin "vīpera", meaning "viper", "adder", or "asp". Conversely, medievalist William Sayers proposes a more complex origin for the term. He notes that the Anglo-French "guivre" and its Middle English derivative ceased to
Westland Wyvern while in service and testing there were 68 accidents, 39 were lost and there were 13 fatalities; including two RAF pilots and one United States Navy pilot. In 1949, a prototype Westland Wyvern TF.2 on a test flight crashed into houses in Yeovil, resulting in the death of four people, including the pilot. An unflown pre-production aircraft, the last to be fitted with the original Eagle piston engine, (serial number "VR137") is on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, England. Westland Wyvern The Westland Wyvern is a British single-seat carrier-based multi-role strike aircraft built by Westland Aircraft