It seems to me that the main effect that slats would have on the intake air for the engines would be to prevent them from ingesting air from a stalled section of the wing. Until the wing is beginning to stall, I don't think that slats do anything to 'condition' the air, but I could be wrong about that. It is counterintuitive to me that the slats would need to be deployed under any flight conditions that are not close to stall ( such as high-alpha maneuvers ). Johng, can you give me a pointer to a write-up about this? I'd love to read more.

Thanks,

banktoturn