There's a sucker born every minute, and they're all buying the "hotelicopter" story, ahem, flying around the blogosphere.

Several websites, including some that should know better, are reporting that a guy named Alvin Farley has spent five years converting the world's largest helicopter into the world's first flying hotel. The modified Soviet Mil V-12 helicopter is 137 feet long and features 16 cabins and two suites decked out with queen-size beds, heated toilets and whirlpools. The flying five-star hotel makes its inaugural flight June 26.

Thing is, the story has a few holes big enough to fly the Hotelicopter through.

First, the Mil V-12 is a real helicopter, but there's no way Farley bought one. The Soviets only built two. One crashed in 1968. The other currently sits in a museum in Moscow. We have the pictures to prove it. Second, the interior shots of the Hotelicopter were lifted straight from Yotel, the chain of hotels that offers tiny accommodations at European airports.

We tried to track Farley down, but couldn't reach him by phone or e-mail. That only strengthens our case — you'd think someone drumming up publicity for a venture like this would make it easy for journalists to get ahold of him. We suspect the only "updates" the site will send those who sign up for the e-mail alerts will be an "April Fool's" message on Wednesday.

The only thing funnier than the 38-second video of the "test flight" is the fact so many people fell for the joke.

UPDATE: 12:30 P.M. Tuesday, March 31: Since this story was posted, Hotelicopter has posted a press release (.pdf) on its web site saying it purchased a Mil V-12 helicopter prototype in 2004 and "has been engineering the world's first flying hotel ever since." The company states in the press release that "the interior of The Hotelicopter was designed by Yotel, the brainchild of UK entrepreneur Simon Woodroffe." The press release includes contact information for spokeswoman Alison McNeill at FutureWorks PR. We've left two messages and an e-mail for McNeill and we've also left a voice message and e-mail for the director of marketing at Yotel.

UPDATE, Wednesday, April 1: Jo Berrington, director of marketing at Yotel, got back to us via e-mail and said, "Yes we are involved - as a bit of an April Fools spoof - we agreed to take part as our design is actually all about luxury design in small spaces so this is really not outside the realm of possibility for us!"

*Image: Hotelicopter.com. Used with permission.

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