Today I walked in the living room to tell the wife I was taking Colt to school and I was surprised by what was on TV. It was a ship that appeared to be sinking. Nope, it was Flip the ship. I was in awe that this ship was standing straight up in the water and not sinking. It turns out it has been around since 1962. I'd never seen or heard of anything about it before. Pretty cool.
Floating Instrument Platform (FLIP) is a unique oceanographic research vessel owned by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and operated by the Marine Physical Laboratory at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
The vessel is a 355ft long, spoon-shaped buoy, which can be flipped from horizontal to a 90° vertical position in the ocean by pumping 700t of seawater into the ‘handle’ end while flooding air into the ‘cradle’, causing it to rise out of the sea.
FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) Research Vessel - Ship Technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq8j86OenqM
The transition from horizontal to vertical positioning takes nearly 30 minutes, after which 300m of the buoy is submerged underwater, keeping the 700 long-ton mass steady, providing a stable research platform for underwater acoustics research.
The vessel is imperviable to wave motion, thus allowing researchers to conduct a range of research activities including meteorology, geophysics, physical oceanography, marine mammal research, non-acoustic ASW and laser propagation experiments in a stable environment.
