The Airy gas model is used to derive an expression for the local kinetic en
ergy in the linear potential approximation. The expression contains an expl
icit Laplacian term 2/5((h) over bar(2)/2m)del(mu)(2)(r) that, according to
jellium surface calculations, must be a universal feature of any accurate
local description. Applied to the noble gases the expression reduces the er
rors by a factor of 50 over previous results obtained by the linear potenti
al approximation.