Post-00s Hubei young man Song Xingyu responds to "fake flight" doubts about his flying skateboard, demonstrating on site to prove it is not AI-generated

Song Xingyu, whose internet handle is "Magical Ayu," is from Badong, Hubei. Recently, this 26-year-old young man went viral online for riding the "Green Goblin" glider board from the movie "Spider-Man" over the Yangtze River and the Bairen River scenic area in his hometown. On October 21, a reporter from Hubei Daily met Song Xingyu. He was wearing a pair of slippers, loose and clean casual clothes, and had fluffy curly hair; his fair and delicate face still bore traces of acne. In front of everyone, Song Xingyu was uninhibited, sometimes jogging and jumping, sometimes playfully clowning around. Outside his studio he was very relaxed, every bit the sunny big boy. How did a boy from a remote mountain village become connected with flight? Sunny big boy Song Xingyu. Real flight or fake flight? Wearing a black helmet, a black tight combat suit, and black snow boots, he rode a flying glider board with cool blue light, flying over bridges, canyons, rivers, and streets, looking just like a virtual character flying out of a game, very sci-fi. When the video came out, the whole internet boiled over. Some exclaimed: "He can really fly!" Others mocked: "He can really brag!" A large number of netizens liked it, and tech bloggers also stepped forward to "debunk" it, laying out scientific reasoning one by one, saying it was impossible for it to be real flight, with great certainty. At the critical moment of this heated debate, Song Xingyu seemed to have vanished. Real flight or AI-synthesized fake flight—for a time it was hard to tell true from false. Song Xingyu is giving a flight demonstration. On the afternoon of the 22nd, at an industrial park in Yichang, Song Xingyu appeared and, in front of the cameras of Hubei Daily and many other media reporters, gave a brief flight demonstration. In this flight demonstration, Song Xingyu did not wear a helmet. In person and in the flesh, he stood on the flying glider board, took off from inside a warehouse, ascended and descended, hovered, turned, then passed through the warehouse door, flew a lap outdoors, and landed smoothly in front of the reporters. The whirlwind stirred up by the ten electric propellers on the flying glider board made the reporters' trouser legs flap noisily. Song Xingyu released the wired throttle in his right hand, the propellers stopped spinning, the huge roaring sound disappeared, and warm applause broke out on site. "So cool! So stunning!" the reporters on site exclaimed one after another. Song Xingyu playfully made a face, and a brilliant smile bloomed on his face. At the flight demonstration site, Song Xingyu responded extremely seriously, point by point, to the doubts online— About flight control. The wired controller in the right hand controls the throttle; the remote control in the right hand can control steering, but direction is mostly controlled by leaning the body left and right, forward and backward. Therefore the rider needs extremely strong vestibular function, balance perception, and physical coordination, as well as extensive aircraft flying skills, and also needs to undergo a great deal of professional training. The earphones and the phone on the right wrist are only auxiliary training systems and data collection systems; they do not participate in the flight control of the flying glider board. About the flying glider board. The white frame and some auxiliary parts are 3D printed. At present, the battery tends to heat up during discharge, affecting endurance; the endurance time is only 16 minutes. Next, he will cooperate with relevant Chinese battery manufacturers to optimize battery performance and improve endurance. In essence, it is a "human FPV drone," and in the future it may be turned into a product, but not a mass consumer product—rather, an aircraft for extreme sports enthusiasts. About performance. It is maneuverable and flexible, can take off and land anytime and anywhere, and can be applied to some special scenarios. "The rumors online are really absurd," Song Xingyu said. High tech or new technology? "I hope everyone can help me explain that this is not some remarkable technological invention, and I have never said how amazing it is. I just made something I wanted as a child, fulfilling a childhood dream, that's all," Song Xingyu said. He explained that when he was little, he once went with his mother to see a doctor at a hospital. On the TV on the hospital wall, the movie "Spider-Man" was playing. The "Green Goblin" flying glider board in the movie made him think it was very cool, and he fantasized that one day he could have such a flying glider board himself. "When I was little, my family was very poor, and I was sometimes bullied at school, so my mind was full of images of myself being awesome in the future," Song Xingyu said. "There were many such childhood fantasies, including one day flying a plane to school, and so on." When he was 6, his mother, who did domestic work in Badong county town, picked up a space shuttle model discarded by an employer's child and gave it to him. Although much of the model's exterior paint had peeled off and many parts were missing, he loved it so much he couldn't put it down and has treasured it to this day. A seed of flight quietly sprouted. As a teenager, he had already met many "flight friends" online and set up a QQ group. Everyone often chatted in the group, which made him increasingly interested in drones, space shuttles, gliders, high-altitude wingsuit flyers, and various other aircraft, and his aviation knowledge continued to accumulate. This space shuttle model is the origin of Song Xingyu's dream of flight. At 14, in the second year of junior high, he had no interest in the classroom, left school, and worked as a helper in his father's wood processing factory. The small workshop could not confine a heart that wanted to fly, and he decided to go see the world beyond the mountains. Two years later, he returned to his hometown and entered a private high school. He dropped out in the first semester of the second year of high school. After dropping out, he worked at construction sites and as a factory apprentice. Every experience, for him, was a process of learning. During this period, through self-study and aptitude, he became proficient in the use of various tools such as electric hammers, electric drills, and electric saws, could skillfully use technical means such as electric welding, soldering, and laser cutting to disassemble and install various mechanical parts, and also dabbled in professional knowledge across many fields and disciplines, including construction, machinery, electronic information, digital technology, power, materials, and aerospace. In 2022, he returned to his hometown once again, borrowed 19,000 yuan from his father, bought a small truck, and set about converting one of his father's work sheds into his own studio. For a full 180 days, relying solely on his own efforts, he completed the renovation of the studio, and with his own hands made a glowing sign reading "A Yu's Scientific Adventures," which he hung in a prominent spot in the studio. Later he asked his father to help him take out a 20,000-yuan loan, with which he added a computer, a 3D printer and some tools, and set off on his "hand-built series" journey. Song Xingyu in the laboratory. In 2024, Song Xingyu spent several months designing and building his first "space shuttle," which he named "Echo One," giving an answer to the version of himself from 18 years earlier. He drove more than 2,000 kilometers to an uninhabited area in the northwest to carry out his "Echo One" launch plan. According to the plan, the "Echo One" space shuttle and its launch frame would be carried to an altitude of 40,000 meters by eight sounding helium balloons, then separate from the launch frame and fly back either by manual remote control or by automatic return. On the second day after he and his friends arrived in the uninhabited area, they were hit by fierce winds; the launch camp was almost destroyed, and the launch frame and several sounding balloons were damaged. With insufficient supplies, damaged equipment, physical and mental exhaustion, and harsh weather... Song Xingyu at one point decided to give up. At the moment of near despair, his companions proposed a bold plan: remove the launch frame and use the remaining sounding balloons to send "Echo One" aloft. A do-or-die gamble! And so, "Echo One" lifted off in the crudest possible way. Not long after liftoff, however, the separation ignition system malfunctioned, and then the positioning system also lost its signal; no one knew where "Echo One" had crashed. After a brief panic, Song Xingyu used the information to find the crashed "Echo One" on a hillside more than 600 kilometers away. To his delight, he discovered that during the hours "Echo One" had been missing, it had actually completed part of its mission—the camera mounted on it had captured the vast and magnificent Earth after liftoff. Although its first flight ended in failure in the uninhabited area, "Echo One" brought him unprecedented shock and joy, making him feel that dreams were in fact within reach, and his childhood dream of owning a "Green Goblin" flying glider grew even stronger. Song Xingyu putting on his flight equipment. In August this year, the flying glider from his "hand-built series" was placed on his work schedule. The production process, however, was not all smooth sailing. First he needed a high-power engine. A 163-kilowatt aviation turbojet engine weighing 80 kilograms caught his eye, and he also equipped it with four 40-kilogram aviation turbojet engines. "With the five engines combined, the total thrust reaches 240 kilograms, enough to carry three of me," he said. Assembly and individual test runs—everything was normal. But when he started all five engines at once, an accident happened: the engines suddenly caught fire, burning part of the fuel lines and electrical circuits. He was baffled, and through AI he found the crux of the problem: the spacing between the engines was too narrow and the nozzles were too close to the ground; when the five engines started simultaneously, the high-temperature gases sprayed onto the ground, spread and rose, and entered the engine air intakes, causing the intake air temperature to be too high and the combustion chambers to detonate. AI also provided him with a safer and more reliable solution: replace the five aviation turbojet engines with 10 sets of electric propellers. "This solution gives greater thrust, reaching 300 kilograms, enough to carry four people." In September, the flying glider was completed. Training and test flights—everything went smoothly, and his childhood dream came true. "As you can see from the production process, it doesn't involve any cutting-edge technology, nor is it some high-tech product. The driver chips are ordinary domestically made chips, and the directional remote control is also domestically made, costing just over 100 yuan," Song Xingyu said frankly. Song Xingyu starting up his hand-built flying glider. Why can "Amazing A Yu" fly? The realization of a dream requires, besides one's own efforts, support from reality—just as the wind lifts wings. Song Xingyu said his flying dream was made possible by his parents. On October 21, we arrived at Group 7, Sanping Village, Chadianzi Town, Badong County. "Clatter..." At around 11 a.m., 59-year-old Song Chaofu struggled to pull open a large, rust-covered iron gate. "You have entered a monitored area!" A warning sound came from a surveillance camera on a neighbor's eaves. This surveillance camera was installed by Song Chaofu specifically for his son. "The big iron gate is usually unlocked; some of my son's things are inside," Song Chaofu explained. The wood-processing workshop was extremely crude, with weeds growing on the damp ground. Under the sheet-metal work shed, lumber was piled up in a jumble. On a rectangular workbench lay scattered several wings made of KT board and wood veneer, along with some tools. Father Song Chaofu showing the aircraft wings his son made. "This is my son's workbench." Song Chaofu gently wiped some sawdust off the workbench and said. Mother Tan Daqing stepped forward, opened a simple wooden door in the inner room of the work shed, and turned on the light. Inside the wooden door was a different scene: in a room of just over 10 square meters, gray carpet covered the floor, one wall was covered with all kinds of tools, and on a long table placed along the wall were a 3D printer, a microscope and a computer. This cramped space was a completely different world from the outside. With this studio, Song Xingyu went out less often, spending all day holed up in his studio tinkering with his aircraft. Sometimes some of his friends would come from out of town to tinker with him. He built an attic above the studio, set up a few beds, and let his friends stay there. Although the conditions were extremely crude, his friends did not mind and would stay for many days at a time. Tan Daqing would quietly cook for them. "Sometimes when the food was ready, they wouldn't eat it—they were like possessed," Tan Daqing said. In the first half of 2024, several reporters from CCTV suddenly showed up to interview Song Xingyu. This greatly surprised Song Chaofu and his wife, and they had a vague feeling that their son had made something of himself, so they gave him even more financial support. The couple had little savings, but whenever their son needed it, they helped him take out loans—taking out loan after loan, time and again. "Each time we didn't dare borrow much—always just 20,000 at a time—and once we had money we'd help him pay it back," Song Chaofu said. His mother was helping Song Xingyu tidy up his studio. In November 2024, in a night sky over Chongqing, Song Xingyu strapped on a self-made jet-powered manned flying device, wrote a farewell note, had his companion use a helicopter to carry him up to an altitude of 5,000 meters, and then leaped, plummeting toward the ground at free-fall speed, a firework carried by his flying wing streaking across the vast sky like a meteor. In that moment, he truly turned himself into a shooting star. But when the fireworks burned out, this "shooting star" also vanished into the night sky, with no word for a full 20 minutes. Fortunately, he survived this death-defying challenge. Tan Daqing watched and cried, so worried that she could not sleep for days and nights. Talking about it, Tan Daqing cried again. She said: "Before, we didn't know what he was doing, and we didn't know it was so dangerous. Every time he went out he'd just say 'byebye' to us and leave. It's not that we didn't try to talk him out of it—'You're just a kid from the countryside, what are you messing around with these life-risking things for?' But it was no use; he was already in too deep. So all we could do was support him." "On days when he wasn't home, we didn't even dare call him, afraid of disturbing his rest and affecting his work. Sometimes when we really couldn't hold back, we'd call him, but he wouldn't answer—he'd always only text us back in the middle of the night," Song Chaofu said. No matter how high and far this kite flies, the end of the string is always tugging at the hearts of Song Chaofu and his wife. Song Xingyu is also very grateful for his parents' tolerance and support. This Father's Day, he transferred 6,666 yuan to his dad with the message "Happy Father's Day!" This space shuttle model that his mother picked up was treasured by Song Xingyu for more than ten years. "Dang dang dang... look, everyone, this is my treasure!" As soon as he walked into the warehouse, Song Xingyu trotted over and knocked on the pontoons of two seaplanes. "I got it online for only 20,000 yuan. Do you know how much it costs to buy this thing new? 200,000! Aren't I lucky?" He was as excited as a child. "Even luckier, I was born in this great era. It lets me obtain what I want more conveniently, including knowledge and skills. From something as small as a circuit board to some complex structural parts, I just send the drawings to the relevant factories, and within a few hours or even a few dozen minutes I can get them—very efficient." This may be the other wing of "Magical Ayu." Just as Song Xingyu said: in this era, as long as you have a pair of wings of dreams, anything is possible. Do you have to fly even if it kills you? "Maybe the next second I'll die here, but as long as I'm still alive, I won't stop." These words came from Song Xingyu at age 24; "adventure" is his label. Over the years, he has had many crazy adventures: at 5,000 meters, he leaped and turned himself into a shooting star; at 2,000 meters, he made breakfast in a "cloud living room" with no walls or railings; in Weifang, Shandong, he turned himself into a kite and flew into the sky... Song Xingyu, strapped to a self-made jet-powered manned flying device, leaped from an altitude of 5,000 meters. His steps of exploration never stop, and adventure is a constant companion. This kind of extreme adventure and challenge is inherently highly uncertain. The process is arduous, and the outcome is hard to predict. For Song Xingyu, 2025 was a terrible year: he spent all his savings building an aircraft, and it crashed; then he built a boat, and it sank in the end. He ended up more than 2.4 million yuan in debt, but fortunately a company helped him pay off most of it. In the past two years, through creative flying and by embedding commercial advertisements in his videos, Song Xingyu has gotten out of financial trouble. His hand-built flying skateboard, "cloud living room" and other creative flying works have also spawned some potential commercial value. In particular, after the video of his hand-built skateboard went viral online, institutions and companies seeking cooperation came in an endless stream, and the people's government of his hometown Badong County also extended an olive branch. Song Xingyu sent his living room into the sky. Each of Song Xingyu's flights sparks discussion among netizens; some praise his courage, while others feel it is not worth risking a young life. In response, Sun Xianbo, a professor of electronic information engineering at Hubei Minzu University, said that Song Xingyu's innovative enthusiasm and spirit of exploration in independently developing and building flying skateboards deserve protection and encouragement, but it should also be clearly recognized that from carrying objects to carrying people, engineering risks and control difficulties also rise. We should protect the spark of daring to think and try, but also fasten the reins of safety and controllability. We encourage innovative exploration, and we hope even more that grassroots scientific innovation will proactively connect with standardized channels and conduct tests under safe and controllable conditions, so that trial and error have boundaries and passion has an escort. Only then can the "hand-built flying skateboard" fly farther and higher. "Magical Ayu" has many whimsical ideas, and he has already written down nearly 300 of them in his memos. Song Xingyu looks forward to realizing them one by one. "Once you fly, it's hard to stop," Song Xingyu said. He will try his best to stay safe. "Because my parents are waiting for me to come home."