John Malkovich’s voice and spectacular cadence in your head:
- “It is estimated that Santa’s sleigh weighs 353 thousand tons. So, traveling at 650 miles per second would create such enormous friction that Santa and his reindeer would burst into flames. You understand? Like a meteor entering the atmosphere. This is a scientific fact.”
Air “friction” has no dependence on mass though. An airplane will effectively have the same air resistance fully loaded as compared to if empty. The surface area/geometry doesn’t change. Same would apply to Santa’s sled.