North Pole Flight Command will once again offer free texting services via official North Pole websites.
These services will allow site visitors to receive texts of news and updates from the North Pole.
Santa Updates, alerts for Santa Trackers, and general news links will be made available, with a special schedule set up for December 23rd and 24th.
Sign-up forms will be published soon.
Test flights of Santa’s sleigh are going so well that designers in the Sleigh Department agree that a newer version is not needed at this time. The sleigh has been on Version 2 for months.
It is typical for the sleigh design to be tweaked up to ten times or more before a new sleigh is completed for Santa’s flight. Like this year, the test flights begin in June and run the rest of the year right up until December 23rd in order to make it ready for Santa.
Over the course of that timeline new versions of the sleigh are announced as improvements are made.
But no significant improvements to this latest sleigh design have been found. The sleigh has continued to steadily perform better and better in test flights.
“If Santa were to take off on his annual trek right now – in the current version of the sleigh – we are confident he would break the 30-hour flight time record that he seeks,” said Elf Quinton Q. Quigley, head of Research and Development at the North Pole.
But just because the test flights are going so well does not mean they will end any time soon. Elf Roger Star, Director of North Pole Flight Command, said the test flight schedule will continue as planned right up until Santa’s flight time. They will continue to look for improvements that could be made.
Test flights have recently concentrated on Sector 1, South East Asian areas of Sector 2 and now is on the east coast of Africa in Sector 3. Trackers note that the sleigh recently has covered larger areas as speed trials continue.
The test flight reindeer team of nearly 5,000 reindeer are not tiring of the pace. While they have been at work for months Santa’s A-team of reindeer and other reindeer who work in support of Operation Merry Christmas have yet to check in for the season at the North Pole.
They are expected back at the North Pole at any time.
North Pole Flight Command is quietly celebrating 200 days until Santa’s launch by expanding the flight routes of Santa’s sleigh. The sleigh, now in test flight stage, has been flying for a week in clear North Pole skies.
Preliminary reports about the sleigh are very good. Flight analysts and sleigh engineers are enthused about the early results. As such, their plan now is to extend the flight area.
The Sleigh Department is ready to build 8 prototypes of Version 2 of the sleigh. These should be ready in just days. Eventually, up to 12 sleighs of each test flight version will be built as flights expand to other areas around the world.
In other news, Operation Merry Christmas is reportedly on track. Mrs. Claus has met with department head elves in recent days to be updated on their progress. All appears to be on track.
The search for Santa has stalled. North Pole Security suspects Santa is engaged in some absorbing activity that keeps his movements limited. Many elves think he may have already started the summer camp project he talked about last month.
The North Pole Post Office reports that mail coming to the North Pole is starting to ask a lot of questions about reindeer. There is not a lot of news to share about reindeer at this time. Many reindeer associated with the test flight team are on duty but most of Santa’s reindeer remain in their homelands, as is typical for this time of the year.
The 200-day mark until Santa’s launch usually signals an increase in North Pole News. Please check back often for more updates.
Mrs. Claus has signed off on the final prototype design of Santa’s sleigh. With that signature the first official test flights of the new sleigh can begin.
Santa gets a new sleigh each year (well, except for last year when he used a really old sleigh). The design process usually occupies several months. Test flights will follow a rigorous schedule as engineers, designers, builders and pilots work together to refine it.
The final test flight usually is conducted on December 23rd, just hours before Santa leaves the North Pole.
The target for test flights this year to begin was set for June 1st. So this new sleigh process is right on target.
Tracking information on test flights will eventually become available on tracking maps within a few months. But these first flights usually result in mixed results and Flight Command is not yet ready to train their crews for tracking.
Map tracking of test flights likely won’t happen until Christmas in July, at least.
