For “Just Askin”
“Was there any other aeroplane of comparable size and purpose that had problems with its rudder?”
With problems being defined as fatalities, the 737 main rudder servo valves comes to mind.
Examples; March 3, 1991, United flight 585, a fatal crash at Colorado Spring CO occurred after the 733 rolled to the right and pitched nose down in a vertical attitude before slamming into the ground, and USAir 427, the fatal 737 in Pittsburgh on September 8, 1994 which killed 132 people.
The NTSB formally revised the Probable Cause as: “A loss of control of the airplane resulting from the movement of the rudder surface to its blowdown limit.The rudder surface most likely deflected in a direction opposite to that commanded by the pilots as a result of a jam of the main rudder power control unit serve valve secondary slide to the serve value housing offset from its neutral position and overtravel of the primary slide.”
“What was the result of all these service difficulties, in dollars of damage?”
I do not know. Neither the SDRs nor the ASRS reports are designed to, or offer this economic data.