From "Worlds of Wonder".

NARRATOR:
Off the coast of San Diego California the stern of the 355-foot, 700-ton ship is sinking. But this is not a disaster at sea. This ship is sinking on purpose. This is FLIP which stands for Floating Instrument Platform designed and operated by Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It's the world's only ship that can operate in a horizontal or vertical position. This amazing pose makes FLIP incredibly stable, the stability allows scientists to perform extremely precise measurements at sea, something that wave buffeted conventional ships can't offer. FLIP is the brainchild of Drs. Fred Fisher and Fred Spiess. In the 1960's they designed and built FLIP to study the bending of sound in water.

SPIESS:
But we knew that it was going to be really useful for other kinds of research because it would sit so stable

NARRATOR:
What gives FLIP's stability is its odd shape slim at one end fat at the other. The model for this design?

FISHER:
It's a Louisville slugger.

NARRATOR:
This video shot on board FLIP during a severe storm shows that the tapered baseball bat shape helps make the platform less responsive to wave motion. FLIP has survived waves up to 80 feet. Launched in the summer of 1962 the vessel flipped for the first time in Debob Bay, Washington. FLIP has no propulsion power of its own so it must be towed to designated research locations. With everything in place FLIP is released from the Navy tug. The flipping process begins. Valves control the flooding of the ballast tanks, which make up FLIP's cylindrical hull. As the tanks flood, the stern sinks, and the bow rises. Scientists and crew brace themselves against bulkheads that are quickly becoming decks. Inside the galley refrigerator, stove, and shelves are turning ninety degrees but not one drop spills from the coffee pot. That's because Dr. Fisher and Spiess have ingeniously mounted everything on trunnion devices

SPIESS:
We quickly began to pick up ways of having things on trunnions so that they would swing back and forth.

NARRATOR:
Flipping takes about twenty minutes from the time the flooding of the tanks begins. Towards the end it proceeds rapidly. Here we've speeded up the process to show the platforms unique tilting movement and rotational shift as FLIP goes vertical.

UNKNOWN:
It was a very strange sensation, I've never been on a vehicle like this before. The floor turned into the wall, everything looked different after it had flipped

NARRATOR:
Such as this shower which is now on its side, other items on board must be repositioned for use.