Following the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced funding, the decision was taken to scrap the platform. In August 2023, Rob Sparrock, the program officer overseeing ONR’s research vessel program noted that it “... would cost about $8 million to make FLIP useable for another five or 10 years, but that funding could be better used elsewhere.”
Clearly an agent of the secret cabal of Good-Time-Ruiners.
Ngl I've always hated spaceships with those swivel designs.
To me they would be incredibly difficult to pilot since you have to maintain awareness of its position at all times which is already hard enough in a 3d dogfight.
And all that extra difficulty for what? I don't see any real advantages to the design.
This concludes my rant about something that doesn't actually exist. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
I always assumed the foils were more for sensors than anything else, increase the size of the aperture to get better resolution, etc.
As for the rotating cockpit, I always assumed it was fixed more or less except you could spin it for different kinds of flying (like nap of the earth flying, orient so the fighter/bomber is above you, etc.)
But I also assumed that the b wing was ridiculously fast but turned for shit, in order to get into a capital ships defenses, drop payload and back out with minimal exposure.
Alas, I was a child and they had to make them stupid.