Like with many things in life, you can never ride the same Santa sleigh twice. Every holiday season the elves roaming labs and corridors at GE Global Research (GRC) trick out Santa’s ride with their latest technology. The need for their skills has never been more urgent than this December, with the planet’s human population above 7 billion and rocketing higher. How Santa pleaded with the elves to make him fly faster, smoother and increase his range!

They delivered, as so did Mr. Claus (as you may have noticed). The elves scoured lab shelves for the latest blueprints, designs, and technology, and repurposed space age ceramics developed for the Shuttle to help Santa fly faster. They added super thin cooling jets to an advanced jet engine to improve aerodynamics, and hooked the sleigh to a new air traffic management technology that applies the principles of the Industrial Internet to reindeer traffic control, hay consumption, speed, and flight path planning. They also rolled out new 3-D printers and made brand new aerodynamic sleigh blades. The tireless elves even plugged in a new sodium battery and applied advanced fabrics, too. The list just goes on.

Judging by scattered clues, the mission was a success. On Tuesday morning, GRC director Mark Little found an unsigned message under the GRC Christmas tree, right next to a half-full glass of milk and some cookie crumbles. “I am looking forward to flying into outer space,” it said. Somebody signed as Rudolph added in clumsy handwriting underneath: “We welcome the new feature that lets Santa toggle between a jet engine and electric powered flight. Covering the entire globe can be pretty exhausting and having the opportunity to rest along our journey will help us remain in peak condition.”