Originally Posted by
Big Pistons Forever
I am guessing that the nacelle strakes would have added drag and thus marginally reduced the fuel savings of the MAX over the NG. Since everything at Boeing is about the money that alone would be enough for senior management to tell staff to find some software cludge that would allow them to smoke it past the FAA...
Hey BPF, the aero modification would have been to reduce the nacelle strakes, as the cowling was giving more lift than desirable, complementing what the strakes/chines/big VG's are doing at high AOA. In the cruise, there in no significant impact from the chine, nor from the nacelle, (...although there probably is a slight inboard/forward shift of Cp in the cruise from the nacelles, which would have had a slight trim drag impact, not affected by the chines).