After spending around two months developing the device, Song Xingyu successfully tested it by flying over mountains, the Yangtze River and city streets, drawing attention online with his remarkable invention, reported The South China Morning Post. A 26-year-old tech enthusiast from China has turned a science-fiction idea into reality by building a flying hoverboard that can carry people.
Song, who comes from Enshi in China’s Hubei province, is popularly known as Amazing Ayu on social media. His interest in aviation began after he watched a television programme about flight testing. Fascinated by aircraft, he started collecting scrap materials to build his first model plane. He also received donations from aviation enthusiasts online to support his experiments. However, his journey was not easy. Song’s experiments involved several setbacks and dangerous moments. However, strong winds destroyed his campsite and the equipment he had prepared for the launch. Six months later, he attempted an even more dangerous stunt. However, he also warned people against following his example. Despite these dangerous experiences, Song continued working on new ideas. he fried eggs and made sandwiches While suspended in the air. This year, Song turned his attention to an invention inspired by Spider-Man. He wanted to recreate the flying glider used by the Green Goblin, one of the characters in the superhero story. His first version used small turbojet engines, but it caught fire during testing. He subsequently switched to an electric propulsion system to develop his flying device. After further work, Song built an AI-monitored hoverboard designed to carry four adults. He also underwent extensive balance training to prepare himself to ride the machine safely. During China’s National Day holiday in October, he completed a major test flight in Enshi. He rode the hoverboard over the Yangtze River, mountain peaks and city streets before landing safely in a canyon. He believes moving forward courageously is the best choice and hopes to continue testing the limits of physics through his inventions.
Reflecting on his journey, Song said he had started with nothing and therefore had little to fear from failure. On October 15, Song shared a video of himself riding his homemade hoverboard high above the ground. Song grew up in a rural family and left school at the age of 14 to work at his father’s lumberyard. In June 2022, Song took out loans to transform an abandoned shed into his own laboratory, where he could work on his inventions. After being scammed, he was left with a debt of 2.4 million yuan, equivalent to around $360,000. Technology company Insta360 later stepped in and provided 1.8 million yuan in funding to support his work. In May 2024, he spent 22 days building a remote-controlled aircraft and attempted to send it into the upper atmosphere using a helium balloon. Wearing a homemade jet-powered flying device, he jumped from a helicopter at an altitude of 5,000 metres. His main parachute failed to open, forcing him to rely on the backup parachute, which deployed only 600 metres above the ground.
Hours before the jump, Song had recorded a last will in which he explained that these experiments made him feel truly alive. In September last year, he used a hot-air balloon to lift a fully furnished living room into the sky.
