Some of the brightest minds at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory used a computer program to work out this almost unbelievable stunt. Using precise mathematical calculations, they would drive an AMC Javelin over a specially designed ramp at a speed they determined would be sufficient to make it corkscrew in flight, turning completely upside down and around in midair before landing upright on all four wheels. They demonstrated it at the Houston Astrodome before a crowd of 45,000 people. It worked flawlessly and thus the Astro Spiral Javelin was born. Special lettering on one side of the car was painted upside down so it could be read while in the middle of turning over in midair!
AMC fans got to see the same trick done in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun, though not with a Javelin. In the movie, Bond steals a Hornet Hatchback right off the showroom floor in order to chase the bad buys. To catch up he ran it at high speed up and over a broken down bridge - and if you look closely you'll notice that the two ends of the bridge duplicate the special Astro Spiral ramps used in the Javelin stunt.
Many people who have seen the movie think the stunt is merely trick photography: not realizing it was a real car making a real jump!