A novel method for controlling the orientation of a helicopter swashplate is developed from basic principles and evaluated by simulation. The method applies to rise-and-fall swashplates which are controlled by redundant actuators for the purpose of achieving survivability and fault-tolerance. The suggested control scheme maintains all of the actuators in an active state, thereby avoiding transient effects following component failures and also making possible the use of simple but effective comparison-type failure diagnostics. In addition, the scheme alleviates the "force-fighting" which is prevalent in redundant actuation designs via a minimum norm concept which conserves hydraulic energy. A simulation of the swashplate dynamics is then developed and used to evaluate the performance of the new controller design relative to that of other suggested multiactuator swashplate controller designs in terms of dynamic response, alleviation of force fights, and detection of actuator failures.