Time machine

The **time machine** is a large time travelling jet plane that Artist and his team use on their time trips.

## Appearance

### Exterior

The time machine resembles a large, wooden jet plane. It is three hundred meters (nine hundred and eighty-four feet) long, fifty meters (one hundred and sixty-four feet) wide, and thirty meters (ninety-eight feet) tall. It has three decks, each ten meters (thirty-three feet) tall, with a cockpit at the very front. Its wings are three hundred and twenty-nine meters (one thousand and seventy-nine feet) from wingtip to wingtip, supported by four ultra-powerful wooden jet engines. At the rear, there is a standard fuselage-mounted tailplane with a windmill blade that provides wind energy during flight.

### Cockpit

The cockpit is highly simplified compared to most modern aircraft. Instead of electronic buttons, knobs, switches, and screens, there are easy-to-understand mechanical instruments. On the left side, in front of the pilot's seat, there is a start-up key, artificial horizon, compass, altimeter and speedometer, the latter two of which can display values in different units. There is also a knob that can configure the time machine for land or underwater transportation.

Between the pilot and copilot's seats are four throttles, one for each engine. Above them is the lever that controls the yaw, pitch and roll of the aircraft, mounted on a ball that can rotate in any direction. In the middle of the instrument panel is the time machine's main console. It consists of two identical time displays, each consisting of three dials (a 24-hour clock with hours, minutes and seconds, a month dial, and a date dial) and an eleven-digit year display. The bottom one always shows the present time, while the top one, hidden by a flap that can only be opened by pressing a button for five seconds, can be manipulated by hand (or, in the case of the year display, a knob) to control the time machine's destination. The top display is flanked by gauges for how much time will be jumped and how much energy needs to be charged in order for the time jump to take place.

The right side of the console, in front of the copilot's seat, has gauges for fuel, electricity, and oxygen, as well as switches that control the activation of these systems. There is also a master thermostat that can be activated or deactivated at will.

### First floor

The first floor is mostly a wide open hallway. The walls, ceiling, and floor are all the color of varnished wood, and it is lit by warm-white bulbs. The cockpit door is at the front of the hallway, beside which are light switches and a thermostat. On either side of the hallway are large, open rooms, carpeted in red and dotted with round tables and chairs, which can be removed in order to create a space wide enough to study giant dinosaurs. The very back of the hallway is suddenly narrowed by two lavatories, behind which is a fully-equipped and well-stocked kitchen.

### Second floor

The second floor greatly resembles that of Nathaniel's mansion, being a thin walkway that has access to several private rooms. As with the mansion, the walkway is protected by wooden railings, but is accessed by a ladder built into the wall. There is also no carpet on the floor.

Each room is very small, about half the size of Nathaniel's room in his mansion. One-fourth of the entire room is occupied by a wooden cabinet. Opposite it is a metal-frame double bed. A thin wooden desk connects from the side of the cabinet to the wall beside the door. Every room has its own light switch and thermostat beside the door.

### Third floor

The entire third floor is a research station. It is accessed by a trapdoor at the back of the room. The walls are painted white at the top half and orange-brown on the bottom. There are red borders on the ceiling, floor and corners. The floor is covered in a maroon felt carpet. There is a large, round, wooden table in the center, which holds a globe, maps, and other charts, as well as several blank sheets of paper and basic drawing instruments. On either side of it there are bookshelves with various books, as well as blank notebooks and sketchbooks. At the front are two desktop computers with screen-less drawing tablets. They have basic art and writing software, but they are not connected to the Internet.

## Known passengers

* Nathaniel Antonio/Artist (Captain)
* Dana (First Officer)
* Mousey
* Pen
* Nathaniel's tablet

## Appearances

### Season 1

* "Adventure of a Lifetime" (mentioned)
* Unnamed second episode

## Trivia

* The shape of the time machine is loosely based on the Boeing Dreamlifter.
* The idea of a time-travelling aircraft was based on the *Time Flyer* from the animated series *The Future is Wild*.
	+ Its appearance as a jumbo jet was inspired by the countless hours Atlantis536 binge-watched aircraft accident videos.
* The time machine is meant to be as low-tech as possible, because normal aircraft parts wouldn't be serviceable before the 20th century.
* Before the conception of the time machine, the series would've involved Artist and his team travelling back in time with the magic of the tablet. They would have only one hour to locate and study an animal in the past, which often resulted in them bringing the animal to the present. As the series would progress, Artist and his team would find themselves trying to raise an ever-growing number of prehistoric animals undercover, and having to balance that with succesfully conducting time trips.
* The values of the time machine's size are exactly the same as those of Noah's Ark, except in meters instead of cubits.
	+ This is inspired by a sentence Atlantis536 read in a Christian textbook, which reads "Noah's aircraft finally laid to rest on Mount Ararat." (For context, the sentence was part of an activity where the objective was to tell which of two sentences used a vocabulary word correctly. The word was "aircraft".)