projected onto a desired surface such as a blade or vane platform or towards an adjacent component referring to fig3 and 5 the elliptical shape of the cooling holes 108 has a first radius of curvature 126 the radius of curvature is generally formed by a surface created from the major axes one such way in which the cooling holes 108 can be oriented is in a direction so as to deflect any stresses around the radius of curvature 126 specifically referring to fig6 an orientation of the cooling hole relative to a stress field is shown by orienting the cooling holes 108 such that the major axes 110 and 118 are oriented generally parallel to the stress field the radius of curvature spreads the stress field and eliminates prior stress concentrations further benefits of the present invention can be seen in fig7 which depicts the improved coverage of the cooling fluid that is achieved with the present invention for a given surface area such as 0 0032 in 2 effective coverage of the cooling fluid passing through the hole is defined as effectively as the width c of the hole divided by a pitch p spacing between holes for the.