Board Thread:Series general discussion/@comment-28601337-20170714082214/@comment-2112031-20170714094610

To be fair, the concept of an air assassination isn't really that complex, it's probably safe to say that numerous Assassins had performed a variation of the technique before Altaïr officially wrote it down.

For example, Bayek's air assassination involves him leaping on top of the enemy, knocking them to the ground, and then stabbing them with his Hidden Blade. Whereas the "official" version written down by Altaïr involves stabbing the enemy directly upon impact.

It should also be noted that it is technically possible to perform an air assassination in the first Assassin's Creed. There are numerous tricks and stunts that can be performed within the game but that the player isn't told about. Here's a video showing how it's done.