The carbon nano fibers that there supposed to be building the next generation of airplanes out of, I believe they are supposed to be a 100 times stronger than what todays airplanes are made out of and they can change their shape. Do these fiber allready exist or do they think they will some day?
If I may point you towards:
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Groups/Nanotechnology/publications/1997/sc97/ for a discussion of the properties of carbon nantubes.
http://www.phys.psu.edu/~crespi/research/carbon.1d/public/ for a very easy to understand explanation of their strength (“A single perfect nanotube is about 10 to 100 times stronger than steel per unit weight”)
http://www.sciam.com/news/111700/1.html for a description of one way of producing them.
However, if you’re looking for the short answer - they do exist and they are indeed far stronger than materials like aluminium. As soon as suitable (i.e. cost effective) mass production techniques have been established, they’re likely to be used in lots of applications where strength and low weight are key requirements.