The rarefied uniform hypersonic flow past the leading edge of a sharp flat plate at zero angle of attack is analyzed on the basis of a continuum model consisting of the Navier–Stokes equations and the velocity-slip and temperature-jump plate boundary conditions. The model fluid is a perfect gas having constant specific heats, a constant Prandtl number of order unity, and first and second viscosity coefficients varying as a power of the absolute temperature. For this flow, it is taken that the Newtonian parameter, $\varepsilon = ( {\gamma - 1} )/( {\gamma + 1} )$, goes to zero, and that the freestream Mach number, $M = ( \rho _\infty u_\infty ^2 /\gamma p_\infty )^{1/2} $, the stagnation temperature parameter, $\theta _S = \{ 1 + \varepsilon )/( 1 - \varepsilon )\}\varepsilon M^2 $, and the free-stream Reynolds number (based on the characteristic axial length from the leading edge), $R_L = \rho _\infty u_\infty L/\mu _\infty $, go to infinity.For the viscosity-temperature exponent, $\omega $, satisfying $1...