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Taxpayer dollars fund all sorts of strange things, from mysterious drones to vacuum-powered wall-climbers, but one unlikely investment that's kept paying off for half a century is the Navy's Floating Instrument Platform. In its research mode, with sensor arms extended over the water, FLIP looks like an alien probe out of the sci-fi stinker Battleship, but in fact it's a floating research station built back in 1962.
FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) is the US Navy's oldest, and most unusual, research vessel.
Commonly referred to as the FLIP ship, it is actually a 355ft long, spoon-shaped buoy which can be flipped from horizontal to a vertical position by pumping 700t of seawater into the 'handle' end whilst flooding air into the 'cradle', causing it to rise up out of the sea.
Once the 28 minute transformation from horizontal to vertical has taken place, 300m of the buoy are submerged underwater, keeping the 700 long-ton mass steady and making it perfect for researching wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data.
FLIP was created in 1962 by scientists Dr Fred Fisher and Dr Fred Spiess, who wanted a more stable space than a conventional research ship to study wave forms. The build was funded by the US Office of Naval Research (who still own the buoy) and the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (who still operate it) and launched by The Gunderson Brothers Engineering Company of Portland, Oregon.
FLIP was given a $2m makeover in 1995 and currently resides in La Jolla, California, although it operates all over the world. The buoy has so far completed over 300 operations.
Originally posted by Dookie Master
reply to post by Vasa Croe
The "Bloop" was recorded by Equatorial Pacific Ocean autonomous hydrophone array, sort of like under water sonar microphones. Check this site out NOAA
I was contracted for NOAA when I was a sophomore and junior in college. I didn't do anything scientific, I was a budget pencil pusher, but I got to see some of the more interesting budget lines. One is the undersea lab off of the coast of Florida that my undergrad school maintained. Aquarius Another thing I got to see is the graduate students budget that were going on a ship like this, I forgot the specific name though. I think it was in the Gulf of Mexico.
Originally posted by Zaphod58
FLIP (Floating Instrument Platform) is the US Navy's oldest, and most unusual, research vessel.
Commonly referred to as the FLIP ship, it is actually a 355ft long, spoon-shaped buoy which can be flipped from horizontal to a vertical position by pumping 700t of seawater into the 'handle' end whilst flooding air into the 'cradle', causing it to rise up out of the sea.
Once the 28 minute transformation from horizontal to vertical has taken place, 300m of the buoy are submerged underwater, keeping the 700 long-ton mass steady and making it perfect for researching wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data.
FLIP was created in 1962 by scientists Dr Fred Fisher and Dr Fred Spiess, who wanted a more stable space than a conventional research ship to study wave forms. The build was funded by the US Office of Naval Research (who still own the buoy) and the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (who still operate it) and launched by The Gunderson Brothers Engineering Company of Portland, Oregon.
FLIP was given a $2m makeover in 1995 and currently resides in La Jolla, California, although it operates all over the world. The buoy has so far completed over 300 operations.
www.ship-technology.com...
www.utsandiego.com...
www-mpl.ucsd.edu...
www.youtube.com...
Originally posted by Phage
I was fascinated by FLIP as a kid (when it was much newer and I was in my "I want to be an oceanographer" stage).
There's an updated version in the works.
edit on 6/27/2012 by Phage because: (no reason given)