Originally Posted by
bigbossman
Aluminum is not very elastic - when it fatigues, it cracks.
Cracking is the very definition of fatigue failure for any material. The cracks initiate in different materials in different ways and for different reasons and then propogate at different speeds.
The fear factor that anti-aluminum folks toss around is that the cracks propogate faster in aluminum so there will be less warning of an impending failure than there would be for steel or Ti - it's not an unfounded concern but it is largely over-stated.