Liu Dongsheng, 34, from southwest China's Yunnan province, has spent over a year and more than 700,000 yuan (about $98,938) building a flight suit in an attempt to realize his dream of flying like "Iron Man".

Liu Dongsheng (Photo/Red Star News)

At 5 p.m. on April 7, Liu Dongsheng tested his flying suit at Beishan cultural square in the Honghe Hani and Yi autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province. During the process of taking off, hovering and flying forward and backward, Liu Dongsheng's body stayed at about 1 meter above the ground, and his movements were skilfully executed.

Liu was born in 1986, majored in Chinese as a foreign language during his undergraduate years, and had virtually no contact with the field of mechanical engineering.

Liu's flying suit  (Photo provided by the interviewee)

However, Liu has dreamed of flying and been interested in model airplanes since he was a child. Later, he became fascinated with the Marvel movies and the images of Iron Man soaring through the skies, often wishing to himself: "If only I could have a flight suit like Iron Man’s!”

After graduating from college, Liu started his own business growing bananas. In his spare time, he likes to watch foreign fighting robot competitions. In 2015, Liu met with fans of fighting robots in China, and tried to design and build them together with a small group of friends. They took part in a number of national competitions and won several championships.

(Photo/Red Star News)

In 2018, a video of British inventor Richard Browning wearing his homemade flight suit and flying around a cruise ship on the sea reignited Liu’s dream. "I looked up the information online and found that no one in Asia has ever invented a similar kind of flight suit." Liu Dongsheng thought that if a British man can invent a flight suit, so can a Chinese.

Being a complete amateur in the field of aircraft manufacturing, Liu encountered a number of technical problems at the early stages. However, after more than a year of design, testing and improvement, Liu and his team managed to solve the key technical problems one by one.

(Photo provided by the interviewee)

Together with the costs of producing a backpack, hand-held brackets and aviation diesel, Liu and his team spent more than 700,000 yuan on manufacturing this flight suit, and have now filed a patent application.

Liu also revealed that he plans to fly across the Lancang River and the Yellow River, an event that will likely take place in the second half of this year.