  Elastic structures loaded by nonconservative positional forces are prone to
instabilities induced by dissipation: it is well-known in fact that internal
viscous damping destabilizes the marginally stable Ziegler's pendulum and
Pfluger column (of which the Beck's column is a special case), two structures
loaded by a tangential follower force. The result is the so-called
'destabilization paradox', where the critical force for flutter instability
decreases by an order of magnitude when the coefficient of internal damping
becomes infinitesimally small. Until now external damping, such as that related
to air drag, is believed to provide only a stabilizing effect, as one would
intuitively expect. Contrary to this belief, it will be shown that the effect
of external damping is qualitatively the same as the effect of internal
damping, yielding a pronounced destabilization paradox. Previous results
relative to destabilization by external damping of the Ziegler's and Pfluger's
elastic structures are corrected in a definitive way leading to a new
understanding of the destabilizating role played by viscous terms.

Classical Physics;Dynamical Systems