The Newtonian theory of inviscid hypersonic flow is extended to obtain a solution uniformly valid in the subsonic region, and that is used to determine the position and shape of the sonic line. The main modification to the theory has to be made near the body surface and an expansion, essentially in terms of the stream function, is employed.

For simplicity the solution is limited to the cases of axially- and plane-symmetric flows. As an illustration of the theory the flows past a sphere and a circular cylinder are treated in some detail. Comparison with the numerical results of Garabedian and Lieberstein gives favourable agreement.