Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 March 2006
The steady, inviscid, axisymmetric, rotating flow past a prolate spheroid in an unbounded liquid is determined on the hypothesis that all streamlines originate in a uniform flow far upstream of the body. The similarity parameters for the flow are κ = 2Ωa/U and δ = a/b, where 2a and 2b are the minor and major axes and Ω and U are the angular and axial velocities of the basic flow. Solutions are obtained both by separation of variables in prolate spheroidal co-ordinates and through the slender-body limit δ ↓ 0 with κ = O(1). Forward separation is found to occur for κ > κ*, where κ* lies between 2·2 and 2·3 for 0 < δ [les ] 1. The velocity on the body, the upstream axial velocity and the wave drag are calculated for κ < κ*.