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THIS PAPER is certainly not intended to be a history of the subject, but a few important milestones are recalled in this and the next five sections.

The purpose of the exercise is to submit that the discipline of fluid mechanics, as taught in engineering schools and practiced in industry, is perhaps ripe for a major overhaul equal in significance to the changes that took place early in the twentieth century. The different eras to be discussed are seen from the perspective of the history of the universe
time line depicted in Fig. 1.

The art of fluid mechanics arguably has its roots in prehistoric times when streamlined spears, sickle-shaped boomerangs and fin-stabilized
arrows evolved empirically [1] by the sheer perseverance of archaic Homo sapiens who knew nothing about air resistance or aerodynamic principles.

Three aerodynamically correct wooden spears were recently excavated in an open-pit coal mine near Hanover, Germany [2]. Archeologists dated the carving of those complete spears to about 400,000 years ago [3] which strongly suggests early Stone Age ancestors possessing resourcefulness and skills once thought to be characteristics that came only with fully-modern Homo sapiens.

Modern man also unknowingly yet artfully applied fluid flow principles to achieve certain technological goals. Relatively soon after the dawn of civilization and the establishment of an agriculture way of life 8000 years ago, complex systems of irrigation were built along inhabited
river valleys to control the water flow, thus freeing man from the vagaries of the weather. Some resourceful albeit mischievous citizens of the Roman Empire discovered that adding the right kind of diffuser to the calibrated convergent nozzle ordinarily installed at home outlets of the public water main significantly increased the charge of potable water over that granted by the Emperor.

For centuries, farmers knew the value of windbreaks to keep top soil in place and to protect fragile crops.

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