“I’ve always liked the space shuttle and airplanes," says the UMR aerospace engineering graduate student. “I originally wanted to be a pilot, but I have asthma, contacts, and I’m a little too tall. I thought if I can’t fly planes, then I’ll just build them. I stuck with that goal all the way through high school and I hope that in a few months I’ll be able to do just that."

Barnett is no stranger to building planes, although their propulsion systems don’t quite match the high-speed aircrafts he someday hopes to work on. As president of this year’s Advanced Aero Vehicle Group (AAVG) at UMR, he led a team of 15 UMR students to finish second in two international weight-lifting competitions of radio-controlled airplanes. The team received a pair of trophies for lifting the most weight in the competitions.

“Class work is good as far as theory and some of the projects," Barnett says. “But in AAVG we’ve been able to put it all together. Things that I didn’t quite understand in classes, now I have a much better grasp on."

Under the direction of advisor Dave Riggins, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at UMR, Barnett is applying those experiences to his research into hypersonic shadowing, a technique which may reduce drag and allow missiles and planes to fly faster.

“The basic idea is that you have a large aircraft flying at hypersonic speeds," Barnett explains. “For hypersonic shadowing, we’re using physical objects to manipulate that shockwave. For example, for a very large missile, we would have one, two or three smaller missiles out in front of it. They’re creating their own shockwaves, and so the larger one is flying in the shadow or wake of the others."

Although you won’t see Barnett taking off in a Fighting Falcon or space shuttle anytime soon, his research certainly won’t stay in the shadows and may in fact end up helping the military and NASA make a different kind of journey – one that ends with cheaper, faster, and more efficient access to space.