Is titanium too brittle for chainplates?

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
Part of the reason, as I understand it, that helicopters use titanium, in places, is to save weight. But materials selection invariably involve (or should involve) any number of factors, including things like strength, cost, fatigue-resistance, corrosion-resistance, machinability, etc. In this case we have an extremely highly-loaded component, where strength and fatigue-resistance are paramount. I do not know what the appropriate grade of titanium would be for this job, but it would likely be several times stronger than a comparable piece of the strongest steel equivalent, among other virtues. And if, for some reason, you made the component out of steel (which used to be the only choice, and is still an option), you can be darn sure that hitting that component would be a bad idea; titanium is hardly unique in harboring "internal and invisible cracks."
So it seems to me that this helicopter pilot -- note, not an engineer, not a metallurgist, not even a machinist -- has extrapolated an important precaution into an absurd absolute: no impact loads on titanium. If this were remotely true, we probably wouldn't see a product like this: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product: http://www.northerntool.com/shop/too...7785_200357785.
Titanium is new to most of us, and we are still learning how to use it, and to integrate it into our palette of choices. Obviously, we can make mistakes with it, just as with other newish products like Spectra. But objections, however qualified the objector might seem to be, need to be backed up with meaningful information.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss