The front end of a Boeing 737 aircraft fuselage has been lifted into the grounds of a school to provide a realistic learning environment for tourism students.

The 32ft long and 12ft wide fuselage was helped into place at the International Food and Travel Studio in Thornton Road, Bradford, yesterday by a 35-tonne crane.

The facility, made up of the first nine rows of a 737 aircraft – including the cockpit and the front two exits – will host a range of travel and tourism-related lessons, including cabin crew and aviation operations.

The Bradford College studio school, which opened in September, bought the £25,000 fuselage after being given the green light by the Department for Education.

Michele Sutton, the college’s principal and chief executive, said she was receptive to innovative ways of learning.

She said: “The studio school in international food and travel opened in September 2012, so it is a very new school and one of the requirements of a studio school is that students have realistic work experience, a work placement and the opportunity to learn in working environments.

“With hospitality and catering we have got local businesses, restaurants and hotels who are part of what we are doing. But with travel and tourism, the nearest airport is Leeds Bradford and it’s not easy for students to get there, so we thought it would be a good idea for our students to have the experience of working in situ in an aircraft environment.”

The school went on to get permission from the Department for Education to buy the fuselage from the school’s budget.

Mrs Sutton said: “What we intend to use it for is specialist training in terms of air crew, but also as a multi-purpose classroom, a different type of classroom, for students to learn in.”

She said the Yeadon-based airline Jet2.com was helping the school fit the fuselage with internal features including safety equipment, to help provide a realistic working environment.