Chinese young man achieves martial arts dream by creating manned 'flying sword'

A post-90s man from southwest China's Sichuan Province has turned his childhood dream of "flying on a sword" like the scenes in Chinese Xianxia (immortal heroes) dramas into a reality. He created a sword-shaped manned aircraft that is capable of staying airborne for over three minutes.

In a video demonstrating the aircraft, a man in a protective suit and a helmet stands on the "flying sword", which slowly lifts off the ground and hovers in mid-air as its engine hums to life.

A Chinese short video content creator who goes by the name Fan Shisan conducts a test flight of a "flying sword", a sword-shaped manned aircraft developed by his team. (Photo courtesy of Fan Shisan)

The footage of this "flying sword" in action has garnered widespread attention on the internet for its striking resemblance to the flying sword scenes commonly seen in Chinese Xianxia dramas.

"I have always dreamed of flying on a sword like the characters in Xianxia dramas do. Now I want to make that childhood dream come true," said a short video content creator known by the name Fan Shisan, who is the brains behind the project.

A lifelong fan of Xianxia dramas, Fan was inspired to pursue this project by the sight of heroes soaring through the skies on swords.

He embarked on his short video creation journey because of a keen passion for martial arts, and draws inspiration for his short videos mainly from martial arts novels and Xianxia-themed TV series, Fan said.

His team worked tirelessly for two months to design and build the "flying sword."

Currently, Fan's team consists of four members, each responsible for design, production, testing, and filming. Fan himself is the creative force behind the project, coming up with all the ideas and designs for the special aircraft.

Unlike traditional drones, which typically have a symmetrical, cross-like structure, the sword-shaped aircraft features an asymmetric, irregular design, which made maintaining stability and balance during flight the biggest challenge to the team.

"Initially, we used 20 ducted fans, but the thrust wasn't enough. We added four more, which gave us the power we needed, and that's how the 'flying sword' you see in the video became a reality," Fan recalled.

Reflecting on the creative process, Fan explained, "It was a gradual evolution. First, we created a small 'flying sword', then moved on to try cluster control, and now we've reached the point of creating a manned 'flying sword'. It's all been a natural progression."

Fan Shisan (middle) discusses the design of a sword-shaped manned aircraft with his team at his studio. (Photo/He Meikun)

Fan has even bigger plans for the next version of the "flying sword." He aims to add artificial intelligence (AI)-empowered voice control and group control capabilities to the "flying sword" and hopes to give it a "spiritual" intelligence that allows it to automatically adjust its flight mode based on the operator's movements.

"I hope one day, 'flying on a sword' will become a part of everyday life, bringing even more surprises and thrilling experiences to people," Fan said.

In Fan's studio, there are more than 40 knives and swords of various shapes on display, which were used in his short videos.

Since the first video in 2020, Fan's team has presented many classical martial arts scenes in short videos.

The team's recent success with the "flying sword" has opened up new opportunities. Fan has received collaboration offers from film and TV production teams for prop creation and technical design.