NORAD, which confirmed Friday it is ready to track Santa’s Christmas Eve flight, released a fact sheet with “technical data” on the sleigh on the Santa-tracking program’s official website.
- Designer & Builder: K. Kringle & Elves, Inc.
- Probable First Flight: Dec. 24, 343 A.D.
- Home Base: North Pole
- Length: 75 cc (candy canes) / 150 lp (lollipops)
- Width: 40 cc / 80 lp
- Height: 55 cc / 110 lp
- Note: Length, width and height are without reindeer
- Weight at takeoff: 75,000 gd (gumdrops)
- Passenger weight at takeoff: Santa Claus 260 pounds
- Weight of gifts at takeoff: 60,000 tons
- Weight at landing: 80,000 gd (ice & snow accumulation)
- Passenger weight at landing: 1,260 pounds
- Propulsion: Nine (9) rp (reindeer power)
- Armament: Antlers (purely defensive)
- Fuel: Hay, oats and carrots (for reindeer)
- Emissions: Classified
- Climbing speed: One “T” (Twinkle of an eye)
- Max speed: Faster than starlight
NORAD has been tracking Santa yearly ever since 1955, when the phone number for its predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command, was mistakenly printed in a Sears Roebuck & Co. advertisement and labeled as the telephone number for children to call Santa.
