A strangely shaped model jet painted in the semblance of Shamu flies through a wind tunnel as students record the success of the flight.

It may sound farcical, but it’s part of the senior project of three aerospace engineering students.

Students Sebastien Fernandez, Shawn Byrne and Neil McCracken have been working throughout the semester on creating a business jet almost unlike any jet we’ve seen.

Contrary to the cylindrical design of other aircraft, the body of this nine-seater is almost rectangular and very wide. The unique design was created as part of a “lifting body” concept.

“The lifting body concept causes less drag,” said Joe Katz, chairman of the aerospace engineering department and a project consultant to students. “The plane uses its wider body to lift itself during takeoff and landing periods, instead of having to increase the wing area by lifting all those flaps.”

So what’s the real attraction?

According to Katz, the body of the plane allows for more head room, a much wider cabin and room for enough fuel to fly from coast to coast.

“Other business jets can’t (fly that far),” he said. “Because of the configuration, we even have a reserve (of fuel).

“The plane is simple, and that will make this design more advantageous than others. I think those three (advantages) are quite significant.”

Katz said students painted the jet black and white to look like Shamu because it is a San Diego project.

The lifting body concept is not an original idea. It was first designed in the 1920s by inventor Vincent J. Burnelli.

“The angles were horrible,” said Katz, “and because of his failure, no one else wanted to try it.

“But because of a computer, we could make it possible to have an efficient configuration of the lifting body concept.”

Katz said because the plane is less complex in design, it should be cheaper to operate. He said that claim has to be tested because they still have to build the plane.

The design of the jet has been going on for about three semesters, Katz said.

“The first semester we had to prove ‘how bad is the other guy?'” he said. “The second semester, we built a model, and this semester, we are testing models and seeing how we advance from previous models.”

Katz said students first designed the jet on a computer and tested it again and again.

To test how the plane will fly, it is placed in a stationary position in a wind tunnel. In this tunnel, students can measure how the wind force affects the plane.

“We first do a virtual model,” he said, “and once it has been tested, we build a model and test it in the wind tunnel. We try to use as many precautions as possible to make sure it’s going to be flying very well.

“Each time we advance, we focus more narrowly on specific aspects.”

Fernandez has been working on the jet all semester and said it’s been a lot of hard work.

“It’s been interesting, but it’s hard work and a lot of it,” he said. “The main idea is to reduce drag of the whole airplane. We don’t know how much, but we hope it will reduce drag somewhat.”

Fernandez said he hopes the project goes further than the classroom.

According to Katz, it has a good chance.

“There is a definite interest from one major airplane manufacturer,” he said. “But they want outside sponsorship, so we’re looking for investors.

“This design is different than anything out there. People have to adjust to it. Right now we have history, invention and no money.”

Senior projects in the aerospace engineering department are an exploratory part of the curriculum, Katz said.

“They are generally unfunded,” he said. “Students get credit, and they usually like the projects and spend a lot of time on them.”Katz said recruiting employers like the fact that student projects are job-oriented.

“The job situation is wonderful,” he said. “In the last eight years we haven’t seen anything like it.

“All students get multiple job offers before graduation.”