Hotelicopter

Hotelicopter is an April Fools' Day video produced as a viral marketing campaign by Hotelicopter, a now defunct hotel search site, in 2009. It showed a craft based on the Soviet giant Mil V-12 military helicopter, leading millions to believe the world's first luxury hotel/helicopter was a reality. The video and website explained the first commercial flight of Hotelicopter was scheduled to take off on 26 June 2009 from JFK Airport in New York City, and reach the UK later that August.

In 2010, the Christian Science Monitor named the Hotelicopter as one of its top five online April Fools' pranks. The Times also included the prank in its "10 best travel April fools", rating it as 10/10.

References

• The Hotelicopter on YouTube
• The Hotelicopter Part II on YouTube
• Staff writers (1 Apr 2009). "Millions of web users fall for 'hotelicopter' April Fool". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2010-04-02. 
• Matthew Shaer (31 March 2010). "Top five online April Fools' pranks". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 17 June 2011. 
• Steve Keenan (1 April 2009). "The 10 best travel April fools". The Times. Retrieved 17 June 2011.