After a short historical survey of the foundation of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the author analyzes the major studies published, starting with 1948. Consequently, the initiative of Paco Lagerstrom (to whom the presentation is actually dedicated), of a systematic study of the laminar solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations -- with special reference to Prandtl's boundary layer theory -- was materialized in a first contribution, Investigation into the flow of a viscous heat-conducting fluid. There follow Problems in the theory of viscous compressible fluids, offering the fundamental solution and an integral equation formulated for special boundary value problems; Singular perturbation problems (Latta, 1951); The role of coordinate systems in boundary layer theory (Kaplun, 1954); Examples illustrating expansion procedures for the Navier-Stokes equations (Lagerstrom and Cole, 1955) a.s.o. There follow several Ph. D. theses devoted to classical problems of aerodynamic theory, based on the application of limit process expansions. Starting with 1964, some valuable books have been issued by most prestigious international Publishing Houses.