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Old 25th Apr 2014, 09:16
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Uplinker
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: UK
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Yep.

During a flight, the wings and fuel in them can get down to -30 degrees centigrade or lower, (the temperature of the air at cruising levels is around -56).

After the aircraft has landed, the wing itself warms up quite quickly, but where there is cold soaked fuel remaining in the tanks, it causes moisture in the air to condense out, quite often forming ice. During the walk around of an aircraft that has been in the cruise a long time, there is often water dripping underneath from this ice melting as the wing warms up and (relatively) warm fuel is pumped into the tanks.
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