Metallic Parachutes

No I do not mean to talk about the Golden parachutes at Merck or DoubleClick. Rather, I am refering to this story on CNN about how a small company called BRS is designing parachutes to save crashing planes. Technology Review on the other hand tells us about a company using Nanotechnology to develop rubber tires into having more metalic properties. And while both of them receive funding from the government, you'd think that matching the two technologies might actually do some good to providing parachutes for entire Jumbo jets.