Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego’s high-profile Floating Instrument Platform is being retired after 50-plus years of cutting-edge research.

Over the course of its service life, the baseball bat-shaped platform exemplified the ingenuity of Scripps scientists and engineers. However, on Aug. 3, the final chapter on FLIP’s distinguished career was closed when it was towed to a dismantling and recycling facility. That came six years after its last research voyage, and three years after reviewers determined the costs to renovate it could not be justified.

John Hildebrand, Scripps professor of oceanography associated with the institution’s Marine Physical Laboratory, recalls just how useful a research tool the platform truly was.

“Commissioned in 1962, the concept was to create a stable platform, though most of it was submerged,” said Hildebrand about FLIP, which he used to study how sound can be used to better understand whales and their behavior. “The water down deep is stable, so with FLIP, it seemed like you were still on land. It (the platform) wouldn’t move. There are so many things you can do from that.”

Hildebrand used the platform to install an array of underwater microphones to perform various studies. “It did a very good job of listening for whales and gave us a unique perspective,” he said while pointing out, since FLIP was developed, that there’s “been a bit of evolution in the way we make measurements. There are a lot more autonomous vehicles that operate now with no one on board.”

Hildebrand noted some 30 Scripps scientists used the innovative platform during its time. “When I arrived here 40 years ago as a young scientist, FLIP was a really unique opportunity,” he said. “It was a very effective tool.

“I’m sad to see it go,” concluded Hildebrand of FLIP adding he believes there’s “still a niche for a new one though there just isn’t money at this point to build one.”

FLIP’s significance cannot be underestimated, said Scripps Oceanography director Margaret Leinen. “R/P FLIP has existed for more than half the length of the institution’s entire history,” she noted. “It was an engineering marvel constructed during an important phase of new technology for ocean exploration following World War II. The many discoveries from FLIP help set the stage for ongoing cutting-edge science to understand our ocean.”

Over the decades, FLIP became an example of innovation at the institution, with its unprecedented design helping to advance society’s understanding of ocean currents, ocean acoustics, air-sea interactions, marine mammals, and more. It inspired millions of school-age children, routinely appearing in grade school textbooks used in schools throughout the U.S.

“In recent years, the combination of FLIP’s exceptional dynamic stability, its booms which allow for measurements untainted by flow distortion due to the platform’s structure, and its ability to deploy a diverse range of specialized laboratory instrumentation in the field revolutionized our understanding of the coupling between the ocean and the atmosphere,” said Scripps oceanographer Luc Lenain. “It also played a crucial role in advancing and validating new cutting-edge observational technologies such as instrumented autonomous surface vehicles, radar, and electro-optical based remote sensing of the environment – tools that are now routinely used in ocean field programs.”

Veteran Scripps physical oceanographer Rob Pinkel was among the researchers who had logged the most hours as a chief scientist on FLIP cruises, beginning in 1969 when he was a Scripps graduate student. “In the late 1950s, the National Research Council Committee on Oceanography convened a study of the capabilities required to dramatically advance ocean science,” Pinkel said. “Among the recommendations of the group was the creation of a special purpose research submersible capable of full ocean depth exploration and a manned spar buoy for the upper ocean and precision measurements. Five years after this report, both (the submersible) Alvin and FLIP were entering operation.”

Launched in June 1962, R/P FLIP drew attention for decades from around the world owing to its unusual appearance and a unique capability to “flip” from a horizontal position to a vertical orientation at sea. To scientists, that characteristic made it a singular tool for studying the oceans.

FLIP maneuvered to its vertical position by filling its ballast tanks with water, causing all but the top 55 feet of its 355-foot total length to be submerged in the ocean. Oriented vertically, FLIP was supported well below the motion of the waves, giving FLIP its singular capability of remaining nearly motionless amid even violent ocean swells. This unique characteristic enabled the transformational science with which it became synonymous.

“FLIP set the stage for thinking big about what could be done with technology to enable new scientific discoveries,” said current Scripps’ Marine Physical Laboratory director Eric Terrill. “It was built in an era of risk-taking; a spirit that we try to embrace to this day and encourage in the next generation of seagoing scientists.”