China inventor creates sword-shaped aerial vehicle, bringing flying sword in fantasy novels to life

A Chinese influencer has turned the flying sword in Chinese xianxia fantasy novels into reality by creating a specially-shaped aerial vehicle.Fan Shisan, from southwestern China’s Sichuan province, recently posted a video of himself riding a sword-shaped aerial vehicle, amassing 3.3 million views and 284,000 likes.Dressed in black and striking a cool pose, Fan looks like a knight in China’s xianxia dramas.Fan Shisan’s team discuss detailed plans for the flying sword creation using a whiteboard. Photo: SinaXianxia is a popular genre of Chinese fantasy developed from the wuxia, or martial chivalry genre, and inspired by Chinese mythology.Unlike wuxia which is still largely bound by physics, xianxia has more supernatural elements such as deities and immortality.One of the most influential Chinese xianxia works is the 2005 drama Chinese Paladin, which was adapted from a Taiwanese role-playing game, starring the now A-list stars Hu Ge and Liu Yifei.Fan, who was born in the 1990s, said he was obsessed with such dramas, as well as classic wuxia dramas such as The Return of the Condor Heroes as a child.A helmeted man in black balances on the hi-tech flying sword. Photo: SinaA former hotel staff member, Fan created his account in 2020, when the hotel asked its employees to try to become influencers to make money during the COVID-19 pandemic.As Fan had always been interested in swordsmanship, he self-studied video editing skills and began posting videos of him playing with swords.At first, his videos focused more on swordplay. Then, when he was laid off by the hotel, he began creating more hi-tech clips.Utilising the physics and chemistry knowledge he studied, Fan recreated scenes from wuxia and xianxia dramas, such as cutting balloons by wielding a sword in the air, creating fire and ice swords or using a sword to induce lightning, without adding visual effects.Fan, above, being interviewed by the media about his fantasy novel inspired creation. Photo: SinaIn 2024, Fan used the savings he earned as an influencer to create the spectacular scene ‘return of the ten thousand swords’, which was invented in the wuxia series Wind and Cloud.Further ReadingHis team used motion sensing technique for him to control the swords’ movements with hand gestures.At that point, they still needed to hang the swords with wires.Last year, Fan combined the technique with drones. His new ‘return of the ten thousand swords’ video was even praised by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.Fan’s latest flying sword was a small milestone after many failed tests in the past 18 months.It is 4.6m long, weighs about 100kg and can carry a man that weighs up to 70kg.It contains propellers to help increase the thrust and can be controlled either with by remote or a sword-shaped lever.As the sword is an unconventional shape for aerial vehicles, his team needed to solve the balancing problem, for him to stably ride it in the air.From being only able to leave the ground for 10 seconds, the sword can now fly for three minutes 2m above the ground.Two men work on a display which showcases Fan’s collection of swords. Photo: SinaFan admitted that his creation is still at the development stage and is far from being mass-produced.But he also said he was happy to realise his “wuxia dream” step by step. He said this is a romance unique to Chinese people.He said his next step would be to remove the lever and control the flying sword simply using his body movements.“He has brought my childhood fantasies into reality,” said one online observer.“His aerial vehicles are not hi-tech, and might not be practical, but I admire his spirit in realising these wild imaginings without worrying about their meaning,” said another.