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Warren Currie 🦠🦐Aug 9, 2023

[EDIT] FLIP is saved!
https://newatlas.com/marine/flipping-flip-ship-saved/
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Well it had to happen eventually. #Scripps is retiring FLIP (FLoating Instrument Platform). This is an amazing piece of engineering (and soooo weird on the inside - everything pivots, so walls become floors). The #ship to be towed out to a location, and it would literally flip, sinking most of the ship directly down to give a *very stable platform for #oceanography research. Launched in 1962.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/world-s-strangest-research-vessel-heads-for-scrapyard-after-51-years

Flipping FLIP ship saved from scrapyard at last minute

The US Navy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography's unique FLoating Instrument Platform (FLIP) has been saved at the last minute from the breaker's yard. Scheduled to be scrapped in Mexico, it was purchased by undersea design company DEEP.

New Atlas

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NormanDunbar Aug 10, 2023

@DrPlanktonguy Why oh why have I never heard of this? This should have been a TV science programme.

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Warren Currie 🦠🦐

@NormanDunbar even for my students, it was generally their first experience with this ship. FLIP was however very popular for a "virtual schoolroom". Scripps provided a number of videos as well for educators.
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/more-65000-students-hop-onboard-scripps-operated-research-platform

More than 65,000 Students to Hop Onboard Scripps-operated Research Platform

Without leaving the classroom, more than 65,000 schoolchildren throughout the United States and five foreign countries will hop onboard a world-renowned research platform operated by UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography on Feb. 26 during Ball State University's award-winning Electronic Field Trip program.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography