Is Santa’s Sleigh Airworthy?

Tuesday, December 21, 2021 at 04:33 PM ET

Verified

Apart from his public appearances, Santa Claus has rehearsals leading up to Christmas to make sure the famous sleigh is ready to go. [Courtesy: Victoria, Texas Communications and Public Affairs]

Key Takeaways:

Santa's annual flight, "Operation Candy Cane," is a year-round, highly organized mission managed by a large team of specialized elves in a high-tech North Pole Mission Control center.
The sleigh is a technologically advanced experimental aircraft, featuring a "full glass" cockpit with redundant systems, retractable runners, and "TARDIS technology" for its immense cargo capacity and cloaking.
The nine reindeer serve as individually monitored "organic powerplants," highly reliable and trained for emergency procedures, with Santa holding a unique "ME-R Type rating" and maintaining year-round flight proficiency.

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There is not a pilot among us who has not wondered about the logistical challenge involved in the queen mother of all cross-country flights—Santa’s trip around the world on Christmas Eve. That consummate aviator, Kris Kringle, aka Santa Claus, graciously made time for FLYING to let us peek behind the curtain, as it were. Although this is his busy season, Santa, like most pilots, made time in his schedule to talk aviation.

Because of the pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions, we had our meeting via a Zoom call. Santa gave us a virtual tour of the North Pole hangar, starting with Mission Control, where a team of elf meteorologists, engineers, reindeer technicians, payload specialists, and mechanics prepared the famous sled for the big night.