20 Things You Didn't Know About The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

8. It Had To Be A Model

The Man With The Golden Gun Ending
MGM/UA

Not unlike Bernard Lee’s M, audiences may be bemused by Francisco Scaramanga's flying AMC Matador, but the concept of a flying car was not exclusive to the Bond films.

Advanced Vehicle Engineers (AVE) attracted the producers' attention with their AVE Mizar car-plane in the early 1970s, but the wing struts repeatedly failed whilst it was in flight. Tragically, this proved fatal during a test flight on 11th September 1973, killing its creator, Henry Smolinski and the Vice President of AVE, Howard Blake.

Special effects maestro, John Stears built the flying car featured in the film using miniature effects. Peter Murton revealed that the car-to-plane transformation was achieved through clever editing: wings were attached to the full-sized car, but the miniature handled the take-off at Bovington Camp in Dorset.

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