A time parachute is an idea that Emmett Brown came up with in 1893 when he wanted to travel to 2015 to pick up the parts needed to finish the Jules Verne Train.
Since the stresses of space-time and the temperature variation would wreak havoc on the cast-iron frame of his steam time car, he needed another method to use for the return trip.
He hooked up the flux capacitor and time circuits of the steam time car to a parachute that was stored inside its storage compartment, along with a hot air balloon. He then planned to don a diving suit to protect his body from the rigors of space-time and the temperature variation.
A person would ascend in a hot air balloon to a distance of half a mile, and then would be released from the balloon. The person would fall at a rate of 35 feet per second per second, and would reach 88 mph between four and five seconds. Since the time circuits and flux capacitor are connected to the parachute, the person would travel through time. The time traveler would then pull the ripcord of the parachute once they traveled through time, and arrive safely on the ground in that time period.
The first successful test of the time parachute took place in 1986 by Doc Brown, wearing the diving suit, and Marty McFly, wearing a radiation suit. They traveled from 1986 in the Lone Pine Mall parking lot, and crashed through the ceiling of the Lone Pine Fli-Drome in 2035.
Later, after having been chased to Doc's second lab by Griff Tannen, Doc attempted to combine the time circuits from the time parachute with the gliderboard they had stolen. However, after discovering that the gliderboard was broken, he used the temporal field generator Mk II to escape back to 1986, where he used the time circuits to complete the newer, unfinished DeLorean time machine.
Appearances[]
- Back to the Future (IDW Publishing)
- Back to the Future: Continuum Conundrum
- Back to the Future: Who Is Marty McFly?
- Issue 12: "How Needles Got Here" (Mentioned only)