Introduction.Most of the approximations and more formal asymptotic expansions which have been used for the analysis of the static and dynamic response of thin, elastic shells are analogous to the asymptotic methods that have been developed in wave mechanics. Whitham [10] has developed a variational approach for the determination of the significant features of a wave propagating through an inhomogeneous, dispersive medium. In the present paper, it is shown that this variational approach can be utilized for waves in shells and provides a dramatic simplification in the determination of the amplitude function.Asymptotic analysis of shells began with the work of H. Reissner, 0. Blummenthal, and E. Meissner (1912Meissner ( -1915. Direct application of asymptotic wave analysis was utilized in the discussion of transition points occurring in the axisymmetric motion of shells of revolution by Ross [7]. For the general surface, the asymptotic analysis leads to "geometric optics", in which the determination of "rays" and "caustics" plays a vital role. Steele [9] discusses the fundamental "point load" solution for the shell with high prestress and negligible bending stiffness. Germogenova [1] obtains the wave solution from the shallow-shell equations, which include the bending stiffness but not prestress. Generally, in wave mechanics, the frequency is used as the large parameter, but for shells, the convenient parameter is the radius-to-thickness ratio. Thus the geometric optics analysis is useful for the static problem, as discussed by Steele [8]. The Airy function solution for a region containing a caustic is given by Logan [3] and the Bessel function fundamental solution is given by Prat [5],In the present paper, we consider wave propagation on the general shell surface with prestress included and without any a -priori assumption concerning "shallowness". Attention is restricted to waves which have a wavelength of the order of magnitude of the square root of thickness times radius. These can be clearly identified as "bending" waves in the special case of axisymmetric deformation of the shell of revolution, but generally include membrane and inextensional effects. For the cylindrical shell, the present solution gives exactly the well-known solution of Donnell's equations for vibration and (classical) stability. Excluded from our consideration are waves with wave speeds of the order of the shear velocity in the shell material-either the extremely long wavelength membrane waves or the extremely short wavelength transverse shear waves. For many, if not most practical problems, these are of minor significance.