  In this Letter we discuss theoretically the instabilities of thermotropic
freely standing smectic-A films under shear flow\cite{re:wu}. We show that, in
Couette geometry, the centrifugal force pushes the liquid crystal toward the
outer boundary and induces smectic layer dilation close to the outer boundary.
Under strong shear, this effect induces a layer buckling instability. The
critical shear rate is proportional to $1/\sqrt{d}$, where $d$ is the thickness
of the film.
