Mar 31, 2009: Hotelicopter

[xoxoxoBruce]

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.

Actually, I'm relieved. I was thinking disaster-waiting-to-happen considering the specs on the Hotelicopter site. Guess we'll have to fill the tip jar the old fashioned way.

But...

I've seen plenty of pictures of the Mil V-12 in the museum, but the second one did not crash. It had a minor accident bending the wheel/landing gear in 1968 and I've no idea what they did with it after the plans for production were canceled.

I'm not familiar with the Yotel chain, but they could have the same designer/supplier... or simply stole the design.

Farley not responding is weak because they don't give a time frame, like "the defendant didn't respond to our inquiries by press time".

So Wired might be right, I hope so, but, "the story has a few holes big enough to fly the Hotelicopter through.", is certainly hyperbole.