It's Norwegian, but here's a pretty unique modern ship that I found fascinating: http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/the-russian-military-despis...

Actually, the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is a pretty wild ship too, complete with gas turbine electric propulsion and Linux:

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-na...

Linux is used on the Arleigh Burke destroyers.

Yes, but Zumwalt has replaceable containerized datacenter units that can be swapped out for upgraded hardware and changing mission.

Meh, most combat ships in the navy are gas turbine powered. Linux is used in plenty of places. That whole project is overblown. If the bow went the other way, it wouldn't be thought of as"futuristic"

The Navy tried Windows NT once, but it crashed and the ship had to be towed to harbor: http://gcn.com/Articles/1998/07/13/Software-glitches-leave-N...

That's misleading. The failure had nothing to do with Windows NT, which is still used in the Navy.

Yes, but that ruins what in 1998 was a highly amusing story.

Wow, reading up on Project Azorian was damn interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Azorian

Which is where the Glomar Response[0] originated[1].

[0] "...neither confirm nor deny..." [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glomar_response

USS Albacore, the first teardrop-shaped submarine. Before nuclear submarines, submarines spent most of their time on the surface and had surface ship hulls with a pointed keel and bow. USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, was built that way as well. USS Albacore, which was not nuclear powered, was built as an experimental craft, designed to be fast and agile underwater. Albacore had an control system set up for a single pilot, using an aircraft-like yoke. The pilot even wore a seat belt.

Albacore performed quite well, and the Skipjack class nuclear submarines (1959) were modeled on Albacore. All later US (and Soviet) nuclear submarines followed that general shape. But the single pilot approach was not retained.

http://www.ussalbacore.org/html/albacore_story.html

There is also the British R-class submarine from WW1. It was designed to be faster underwater than on the surface:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_R-class_submarine

That one made series production, ten being made. I wouldn't be surprised if the USS Albacore design team learned something from the British experience with hunter-killer submarines.

There were also three German midget submarines build for speed attacks with a teardrop shape in WW II:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphin

There's also the Stiletto stealth boat: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M80_Stiletto

The camel transport is surely by far the most powerful since the camel it is loading is only found deep in land locked central Asia.

Pictured camel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bactrian_camel

I got to see the SBX-1 when it came to port in Seattle a couple of years ago. It's one odd-looking duck: http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/sea-based-x-band-ra...

Flip looks amazing, but, I can't understand what the benefits are / why it needs to do that!

Here's a more detailed article on in with some more images.

http://www.ship-technology.com/projects/flip-ship/

Specifically: "keeping the 700 long-ton mass steady and making it perfect for researching wave height, acoustic signals, water temperature and density, and for the collection of meteorological data."

It's a research ship.

The problem with research ships is that they float on the surface, and the surface moves. Flipping the ship up like that turns it into a much more stable platform.

Here's a talk by one of the inventors of FLIP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bM6jFokRoZk

He talks about the ship design a little bit, and about his research.

There's an impressive clip in there, starting around 16:16, about one time off Hawai'i, when 80' blue-water swells started coming in from some far-off storm. The ship nearly stays in place as the waves engulf it, leaving only 15' above the water.