A typical subsystem found in almost all aircraft and space vehicles consists of beam, plate and/or shell elements attached to each other in a rigid or flexible manner. Due to limitations on their weights, the elements themselves must be highly flexible, and due to limitations on their initial configuration (i.e., before deployment), those aggregates often have to contain several links so that the substructure may be unfolded or telescoped once it is deployed. The defining philosophy of this monograph is that in order to understand completely the dynamic response of such a complex elastic...