R/P FLIP
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The R/P FLIP is an open ocean research vessel. The FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform) ship is a 355 foot vessel designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90 degrees, resulting in only the front 55 feet of the vessel pointing up out of the water, with bulkheads becoming floors. Pictures of this ship are frequently mistaken for a capsized ocean transport ship.
The FLIP ship is designed to study wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data. Because of the potential interference with the acoustic instruments, FLIP has no engines or other means of propulsion. It must be towed to open water, where it drifts freely or is anchored.
FLIP carries a crew of five, plus up to eleven scientists.
The Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography created FLIP with funding from the Office of Naval Research (TRF). The Gunderson Brothers Engineering Company in Portland, Oregon launched FLIP in June 1962. (In 1995, FLIP received a $2,000,000 modernization.)
FLIP is 108 meters long and weighs 700 long tons. It operates worldwide but the normal operating area is the west coast of the United States.
