According to one of my favorite books, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, by Theodore Gray, aluminum is “light and strong enough to form the structure of most airplanes except the most exotic high-performance military aircraft.” It reacts to oxygen, but instead of rusting into red flakes like iron it forms a tough, transparent oxide coating (corundum).

Here’s a link to a site that details the use of aluminum in aerospace: History of Aluminum in the Aerospace Industry. It’s a “metal supermarket”, but does seem to include quite a lot of information about uses and alloys of aluminum in aircraft.

I also found a few books about the subject on Amazon, including this gem that may or may not be useful in answering your question:

To Love An Aluminum Bitch: Stories & Lyrics of Aviation Maintenance & Adventure: Fred Robel: 9781499635034: Amazon.com: Books