Symmetric linear systems

Abstract

Employment as a means of transportation in the civilian construction trades represents one of the many applications of the helicopter. However, a major limitation to its use in heavy construction has been that the mass which can be effectively and safely transported is severely restricted. The construction of the so-called 'heavy lift' helicopter provided one solution to this problem. But it has been found that there are physical and economic limitations to the payload which can be transported. The proposal has been made to overcome these limitations by making use of multiple helicopters to move a single mass. A study of the feasibility of this proposal showed that automatic control would be needed to make the concept successful. The present investigation is concerned with some initial models in regard to the twinlift problem, taking into account the control theoretic problems.