 Uniform potential flow around an ellipse

For $0<a<1$, the Joukowski map $z=\zeta +a^2/\zeta$ maps the exterior unit circle to an ellipse of horizontal and vertical semiaxes $1+a^2$ and $1-a^2$. The Milne-Thomson circle theorem gives $W(\zeta )=U(e^{-i\alpha }\zeta +e^{i\alpha }/\zeta )$ for a uniform flow inclined by $\alpha$. The chain rule produces the displayed complex velocity in the physical plane. Since $z\sim \zeta$, the far-field flow retains its speed and direction. Its two stagnation points areobtained from $\zeta =\pm e^{i\alpha }$. The map derivative is nonzero on and outside the unit circle, so these zeros are preserved without introducing a boundary singularity.