World's First Flying Hotel!

Modeled on the Soviet Mil V-12, the largest helicopter ever built, this double deck Airbus A380 idea has seemingly set the bar high for luxury accommodation. The Russian Hotelicopter Company purchased one of these prototypes from the Mikhail Leontyevich Mil helicopter plant in Panki-Tomilino, Russia in 2004 and claim to have been working out the kinks in the design ever since.

This contraption boasts 18 luxury rooms, each soundproofed and furnished with a queen-sized bed, fine linens, a mini-bar, coffee machine, wireless Internet access, and all the trimmings one would expect to find in a flying hotel with room service offered half and hour before and after take off.

"The original Mil V-12 was an amazingly large helicopter which absolutely dwarfs any heavy lift Helicopter in use today. Each rotor had a diameter of nearly 115 ft (35m), mounted at the end of a large wing, making the distance from the tips of each rotor blade wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 747. The two Soviet built V-12s did fly and still hold the helicopter heavy lift world record of 44,205 kg (88,636 lb) at a height of 2,255m (7,398 feet) set on August 6th 1969 but were simply too big and difficult to maneuver to be practical so never reached production." - Gizmag, 3/30

Although the company, Hotelicopter has shown very imaginative and innovative images of this design as well as a flight tour, just from the above dimentions and weight, I have my doubts about just how practical these claims might be. For starters, the specified Maximum Takeoff Weight is given at 232,870 lb, the same as the original Mil V-12 helicopter even though three stories of rooms have been added and this really doesn't sound feasible. So although a flight tour has been released, starting June 26th, I think these plans are pretty spurious especially considering that yesterday was April fool's.







Images obtained from: www.likecool.com
Article details obtained from: www.gizmag.com