The in tank air conditioners solve the problem.



Plus the addition of QuakerState.

 

Developed by Irwin Fletcher in the early 80’s to prevent citation elevators from melting. GE installed the the same valve on top of the Leap engine to prevent wings from melting. As other have mentioned, the slurry of ball bearings, amazing amount of gunk, and quakerstate antifreeze prevent the heat from melting the wing.

 

Not to mention they are designed that way on purpose. Optimal stoichiometric rise in jet fuel is approximately 1/8 to 1/3rd 600 degrees C. Boeing engineers have been scratching their heads for years on how to integrate conformal tank heaters into their high efficiency wings. They have never had a good way to do it. That is, until the Max 8 came along.

With it's high valved triple bypass engines mounted forward and above the wings, laminar heat rise was achieved over the #3,4,5 and 6 ribs. By integrating titanium into the proximal rib face, they were able to capture that heat and transfer it to the fuel in the tank.

This heats the fuel and while it does indeed explode, it's controlled similar to the gas in your car's cylinders. It's routed through the rotating vanes and valved back into the engine's bypass, increasing efficiency while also lowering the potential for a fuel tank rupture when operating in high alpha fan regimes.

Another neat little bit of tech integrated into the Max 8 is the fusible control surfaces, but that's a discussion for another thread...

 

Amazing. I’m installing this system on my ‘85 IROC Z28. Better keep the T Tops on to not cause permanent damage to my mullet.