A man stands on a small board and flies between bridge piers, with the water far below his feet. Chinese maker Ayu, known online as 神奇阿宇, shows an electric flying board that genuinely lifts him into the air. The most striking part is not only under his shoes: according to the accompanying text, two smartphones and an AI assistant help him learn to fly.
The footage shows a personal flight experiment with a clear science-fiction feel. The pilot stands upright, bends his knees and shifts his weight as the board moves through the air. For defence, it touches on a familiar question: can you get someone across an obstacle with a compact flying device, without deploying a helicopter?
Ten motors under your feet
Ayu’s original video post is titled ‘I built a flying board’. The device has several propellers around a narrow platform. The layout resembles a large multicopter with the operator standing on top. The footage includes flights over water and between steep, green riverbanks.
According to the accompanying text, the electric version has ten brushless drives, each delivering more than thirty kilograms of thrust. A peak current of 2,000 amperes is also mentioned. These are stated figures for this demonstration, not published certification data. The comparison with the weight of four people also says something about total thrust, not about room or permission to carry four passengers.
To take off, the motors first have to carry the board itself, the batteries and the pilot. Whatever reserve is left is needed for manoeuvres and for absorbing disturbances. On such a small platform that makes a difference: an impressive thrust figure does not yet tell you how long you can fly or how much equipment you can carry.
A coach in your earpiece
According to the accompanying text, the two STEPX Neo phones play different roles. One unit in the board collects data on the platform’s attitude. A second sits on the rider’s wrist. The AI assistant Amoo gives instructions about body posture through earbuds, for example when the weight shifts too far to one side. Ayu reportedly trained with it for more than ten days.
That makes the application interesting mainly as a personal training aid. A rider who has to keep balancing cannot read a screen at length at the same time. Spoken instructions can translate measurement data into an understandable correction. The human visibly remains part of the flying: posture and reactions matter.
Such an AI coach must, however, be distinguished from the fast control loop that keeps a flying platform stable. A spoken instruction goes through different steps than directly adjusting motor power. An assistant giving advice therefore does not mean that a language model is independently controlling every flight movement. Above all, the demonstration sparks curiosity about the interplay between human, sensors and software.
Defence has already tested personal flying devices
The idea of flying a person directly to a hard-to-reach spot has also been explored by armed forces. In May 2021 the Royal Navy described trials of Gravity Industries’ jet suit with the patrol ship HMS Tamar. They looked at possible applications for boarding vessels.
A relevant detail: during those trials the suit was flown by Gravity Industries staff, not by the Royal Marines. The Royal Navy concluded at the time that the technology was not yet ready for military introduction. That judgement concerned that system and that trial period; it is not an assessment of Ayu’s electric board.
The similarity lies in the ambition to move one person quickly across an obstacle. The execution differs greatly: a wearable jet suit is a different system from a platform with electric propellers. For practical use, range, sensitivity to wind, noise, reliability and the ability to carry equipment also count. Landing safely when something goes wrong is at least as important as taking off.
Ayu’s flying board mainly shows how surprising the combination of electric propulsion and digital guidance can turn out. A demonstration is not yet a deployable military means of transport. But an AI assistant that helps a user correct themselves during a physical task is a concrete idea that reaches beyond this spectacular flight.
