Production Wyverns were powered by a turboprop engine driving large and distinctive contra-rotating propellers, and could carry aerial torpedoes.

The Wyvern began as a Westland project for a naval strike fighter, with the engine located behind the pilot, driving a propeller in the nose via a long shaft that passed under the cockpit floor, similar to the Bell P-39.

[1] The original design soon matured into the more conventional Westland W.34, with the 3,500 hp (2,610 kW) Eagle engine in the nose driving large contra-rotating propellers and the pilot sitting high in a humped fuselage to improve visibility.

Both the piston-powered and turboprop versions shared many common components including wing and tail units, and essentially the same basic cockpit structure.

[1] Clyde development was subsequently cancelled by Rolls-Royce after only 50 hours of flight time for the TF.2, and the aircraft was delivered to Napier & Son to be fitted with the Nomad turbo-compound engine.

S.4s reached limited shore-based front line service in May 1953 with 813 Naval Air Squadron at RNAS Ford, replacing the somewhat similar (and equally troubled) Blackburn Firebrand.

The Wyvern soon showed a worrying habit for flameout on catapult launch: the high G forces involved caused fuel starvation.

took the Wyvern into combat from HMS Eagle, flying 79 sorties[8] during Operation Musketeer, the armed response to the Suez Crisis.

Two Wyverns were lost to damage from Egyptian light anti-aircraft fire; the pilots of both aircraft successfully ejected over the sea and were picked up by Eagle's search and rescue helicopter.

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.