jon:
While Nevil Shute Norway was in fact an aircraft design guy (dirigibles, I believe) with an appreciation for fatigue, and likely had some anticipation that future fatigue casualties would happen, Nevil Shute the author got much undeserved credit for guessing it would happen to (specifically) the Comet.
Americans and Brits (and others) all came to appreciate the durability of the Wildcat and Hellcat from the "Grumman Iron Works". But the Bearcat never saw WWII duty, and at least two F8F's broke up during postwar aerobatic exhibitions.
And Grumman's lunar vehicles were examples of outstanding performance-to-weight engineering, with just barely enough fatigue life to last one mission (that's certainly NO criticism of Grumman, just stating what they really accomplished!)
And the DC-10 problems were not fatigue-related at all, but overstress damage during unapproved maintenance procedures.
So, precious little of your original tome really addresses the current G-73 problem.