| Abstract: | This paper deals with the derivation of “first approximations” to the solutions of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation which are uniformly valid in a full neighborhood of the critical point. To this order the theory is remarkably simple. The essential elements in the theory are all well known from the older heuristic theories but its general structure is substantially different. The uniform approximations are also vastly simpler than the composite approximations obtained recently by the method of matched asymptotic expansions. |
