Boeing, Airbus Back SMS Safety System.

[Guest lame.]

West Australian Newspapers

13-7-2004

Boeing, Airbus back SMS safety system

MICHAEL WEIR

An Osborne Park-based company has won the backing of the world's two biggest airline manufacturers for its leading edge aviation safety technology that forms the basis of a new $45 million float.

The public unlisted Structural Monitoring Systems hopes to list by the end of this month after lodging a prospectus to raise $5 million in fresh equity.

SMS is the latest float of corporate promoter Tony Brennan, whose unlisted seed capital group Capital Growth Corporation became a major shareholder last year.

Mr Brennan said SMS had developed technology that could monitor the structural integrity of aircraft.

"This is local technology and the world leaders, like Boeing and Airbus, are strongly embracing it," he said.

The company has spent 10 years and more than $14 million on patents and developing and proving the concept, called comparative vacuum monitoring (CVM).

The CVM technology uses vacuum-based sensor systems to detect fatigue, stress and cracks in metal before they become a problem.

While SMS has chosen to focus initially on the aviation industry, the technology can also be applied to other industries where structural integrity is crucial, such as nuclear, oil and gas processing and marine.

Mr Brennan, a non-executive director of SMS, said the CVM technology had the potential to substantially reduce the cost of airframe inspections by replacing manual inspection techniques.

When built into the design of new aircraft, CVM technology had the potential to reduce over-engineering and lead to a substantial reduction in aircraft weight, he said. It could also be retro-fitted to existing aircraft.

Former pilot Ken Davey invented the technology after structural failure was blamed for an airline disaster near Port Hedland in 1968 that killed 26 people.

Mr Davey escaped the disaster because he was a passenger on the plane the previous day but he knew several of the crew who died.

Mr Brennan said SMS hoped to sign contracts in the next six months that would see the technology used by European company Airbus on new aircraft.

Major rival Boeing is sponsoring SMS's bid to have the technology certified by the Federal Aviation Authority for use in the US market.

At a conference on structural health monitoring in Germany last week, Airbus said CVM was "one of the key technologies required when implementing structural health monitoring".

"At this stage Airbus is using CVM technology both for laboratory and structural tests. It is used on a regular basis to monitor and control fatigue test programs, due to its proven reliability and built-in fail-safe properties," it said.

SMS is chaired by retired RAF Air Marshal Sir John Walker and recently added former Qantas engineering chief David Forsyth to its board. Its day-to-day management is handled by former BankWest head of project finance Robin Dean.

Under the fully underwritten prospectus SMS is offering 20 million shares at 25¢ each with a free attached option exercisable at 20¢ before April 2007.