The unsuitability of ellipsoids as test cases for line-source methods

The fact that the axisymmetric flow about a prolate spheroid can be obtained through the superposition of a uniform stream and the flow due to a linearly varying line source between the foci, can be derived from first principles by equating to zero the combined stream function of the uniform stream and the line source. The prolate spheroid furnishes a counter example to the claim that axial source distributions can only represent thin boides, since prolate spheroids can also be represented exactly up to a thickness ratio of unity.