RP FLIP
1962
(Rodkling RK-69WL)
- Class: FLIP -- 1 semisubmersible open ocean research platform of 1962
- Displacement: 700 tons
- Dimensions: 355' (oa) x 26' x 12.6' (towed) or 300' (deployed)
- Machinery: 2 x 150kW diesel generators; no propulsion
- Armament: none
- Complement: 5 crew + 11 researchers
- Builder: Gunderson Brothers Engineering, Portland, Oregon
- Launched: 22 Jun 1962
- Completed: 23 Jul 1962
- Out of service: Aug 2023
- Notes: The floating instrument platform RP FLIP is a semisubmersible open ocean research platform that was owned by the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) and operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It is designed to partially flood and pitch backward 90°, resulting in only the forward 55 ft of the platform pointing up out of the water, with bulkheads becoming decks, while the body extended 300 ft below the ocean surface. When flipped, most of the buoyancy for the platform is provided by water at depths below the influence of surface waves, hence FLIP is stable and mostly immune to wave action. At the end of a mission, compressed air is pumped into the ballast tanks in the flooded section and the platform, which has no propulsion, returned to its horizontal position so it can be towed to a new location. FLIP was originally built to support research into the fine-scale phase and amplitude fluctuations in undersea sound waves caused by thermal gradients and sloping ocean bottoms. This acoustic research was conducted as a portion of the Navy's SUBROC program. Over 60 years of operation FLIP was used for many different research projects. The program was terminated in 2023 and FLIP was towed to Mexico to be scrapped, but it was purchased by the DEEP organization for further ocean research and transported to La Ciotat, France, for refit.
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