Reasons For Strategic Decision At Thai Airways

Reasons For Strategic Decision At Thai Airways An inspired and carefully considered business strategy can be used to guide a company to achieve greater profitability and success, as it is known that strategy can be viewed as plan, ploy, pattern, position and perspective (Kourdi 2009, p3). To those companies that rely on low price to attract customers, such as budget airlines, business strategy plays a significant role in their business. However, business strategy should be based on the understandings about competition and threats in the industry, micro and macro environment factors that affect the success of their business, and strengths and competitive advantages of the company. Only can business strategy that is based on these understandings be used to achieve success of business Question 1: Reasons for Launching a Low-cost Airline with Thai Airways Tiger Airways is going to launch a low-cost airline with Thai Airways, which will target domestic and international destinations within five hours flying times distance on the basis of Bangkok (Creedy 2001). There are many reasons that Tiger Airway launched this airline jointly with Thai Airways, and the following five reasons are the most important ones: To compete effectively. It can be seen from the case that, by joint venture, it is easier for Tiger Airways to grow its business in Thailand, and will compete effectively in this region with Jetstar and AirAsia (Creedy 2001). Additional network advantages. By joint venture, it will build better network relationship with Thai Airways and may have advantages to deal with future spread risk and competition, as Thai Airways becomes a partner rather than a competitor (Creedy 2001). Additional cost advantage. By possessing 49% of the joint venture, and other 51% owned by Thai Airways, Tiger Airlways has chance to use the advantage of Thai Airways to maintain and even strength its low cost advantage (Creedy 2001). To reduce risk. By additional network and cost advantages brought from this deal, Tiger Airways is capable to face further spread risk. Pan-regional strategy. This joint venture is an important step forward in Tigers pan-regional strategy. It is noted by CEO of Tiger Airways, Tony Davis, that Bangkok is one key South East Asian gateway within striking distance of both India and China (Creedy 2001). By additional network advantage from joint venture with Thai Airways, it becomes easier for Tiger Airways to implement this strategy. Reasons for Strategic Decision Tiger Airways decision of launching a new airline jointly with Thai Airways can be considered as a strategic decision. Reasons are stated as follows: This decision affected the long-term direction of Tiger Airways. As mentioned above, this decision was an important step forward for its pan-regional strategy (Creedy 2001). This decision helped achieve advantage for Tiger Airways. Additional network advantage with Thai Airways and cost advantages were achieved by this joint venture decision. This decision expanded the activities scope of Tiger Airways to low-cost flight to Bangkok/ Thailand, and might expand to India and China as well This decision had major resource implication. It is mentioned in the case that by 2015, 68 flights would be allocated to this low-cost airline (Creedy 2001). This decision created new opportunity for Tiger Airways. By this decision, Tiger Airways became more competitive with Jetstar and AirAsia, which created new opportunity for the growth of Tiger Airways (Creedy 2001). This decision affected operational decisions of Tiger Airways. Investment in this new airline needs to be taken into consideration by Tiger Airways. Obviously, this decision can be viewed as a plan, a ploy, a pattern, a position, a perspective. Therefore, it is a strategic decision. Macro Environment Analysis PESTEL model is a good technique that can be utilized to analyze macro environment factors that affect the industries, as well as low-cost airline industry. It contains six factors which are Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors (Robinson 2009, p75). Political: Government instability is a major factor to the low-cost airline industry. For example, the affairs of Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra and his Red-Shirt, led to a fatal drop in tourism industry, which may decrease the customer amount of low-cost airline industry (BBC 2010). Economical: Economy recession and financial crisis affected the profitability of low-cost airline industry players. A survey carried by Airline Business indicated that although revenue didnt show decline, profitability was affected by the financial crisis. Many players encountered a loss in 2008 compared to 2007 (Dunn 2009). Social: The attitude of income distribution and balancing work and leisure are factors that cant be neglected. People who are willing to distribute their money on travelling and their free time of leisure will increase the customer amount of the industry. Technological: Technology that makes standing seats for airlines available influence this low-cost airline industry seriously. The availability of standing seats for airlines will cut down the cost of industry will make it more attractive (BBC UK, 2010). Legal and Environmental: Employment laws, competition law, threat of natural causes, carbon dioxide emission are other factors of the low-cost airline industry. Question 2: Corporate Strategy, Business Level Strategy and Operational Strategy Corporate Level Strategy According to the definition from Collis and Montgomery (2005, p8), corporate level strategy can be defined as the way that a company uses to create value through configuration and coordination of its multimarket activities. There are three main emphases of this definition, value creation, configuration and multimarket activities. It is indicated in Appendix 1 that the corporate strategy of Tiger Airways is that: To create a portfolio of profitable routes throughout Asia and Australasia by establishing airlines in market where low-fare, low cost business model has exceptional potential for sustainable profitability with ancillary services such as luggage upsize, seat selector and sports equipment check-in. Business Level Strategy One model developed by Bowman called The Strategy Clock can be used to get good understanding about business level strategy, which relates competitive advantage to cost advantage and differentiation advantage. These successful strategies can be illustrated as following levels: Low price/ low added value, Low price, Hybrid, differentiation without price premium and Focused differentiation (Angwin et al 2007, p121) All these different strategy are classified based on two factors, price and value. It can be seen from Appendix 1 that the price of Tiger Airways is low because the company implement cost leadership strategy. Besides, compare to other airlines, the value added by Tiger Airways is limited. Luggage is limited to a certain size; seat selection will be charged. Only is purchased food or drink is allowed compare to free food and drink in SIA. Thus, the activities are low value-added. Therefore, based on these two factors, the business level strategy is Low price/Low added value. Operational Strategy According to the definition of Lowson (2002, p57) that operational strategy can be viewed widely as a value delivery strategy. It is all about decisions which helps create and deliver product/service, value to customers through companies core competencies. Therefore, the main operational strategy of Tiger Airways is to maintain and enhance the core competencies of low fare/ low cost. Many decisions have been made based on this strategy: Joint venture with Thai Airways to launch new airline. Install advanced 3-D weather radar to increase efficiency (Tiger Airways.com 2010) Minimize service that charges customers on customers behalf. Question 3: Porters Five Forces Analysis Porters five forces model is one of the most well-known models in business literature that produce the competitive situation in any industry (Beamish Williams 2008 pp76-77). The five forces and their relations are indentified as follows: Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of suppliers Intensity of rivalry Source: Caneval Ventures. Models on the dynamics of innovation. http://www.caneval.com/vision/innovation/innovation2.html [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] Threat of new entrants The threat of new entrants of the low-cost airline industry is very fierce (4 out of 5). Although the investment of setting up new airline companies is huge to those organizations which are not in the airline industry, it is feasible to other organizations which are already in airline industry to establish new companies which serve the low-cost airline industry. The establishment of Tiger Airways can be an example to support this point. Tiger Airways is partially by SIA, which is the leading airline service provider all over the world. Threat of substitutes Long distance coaches, trains, passenger ships, network and other airline service providers (such as SIA) are the main substitutes of the low-cost airline industry. It can be seen from Appendix 2 that, although the low-cost airline industry is a booming industry with high growth rate, Network airline service providers are still the main provider in the airline industry. And Long distance coaches and trains play much more significant role in transportation in countries such as China because of the poor development of air transport. Therefore, this threat is very high (3 out of 5). Bargaining power of buyers In low-cost airline industry, though customers are easy to find substitutes but these substitutes may cause higher price or take more time to reach their destinations. Therefore, the bargaining power of buyers is not so strong (2 out of 5). For example, it is clearly seen from Appendix 3 that SIA return ticket for travelling between Singapore and Hong Kong is around 100SGD expensive than that of Tiger Airways. Bargaining power of suppliers Obviously, the main supply of low-cost airline industry should be the aircrafts, and Boeing and Air Bus are the two suppliers of aircrafts to low-cost airline industry. It means that these two companies are in the position of monopoly. Therefore, their bargaining power is extraordinary strong (5 out of 5). Intensity of rivalry The intensity of rivalry of low-cost airline industry is not so fierce (2 out of 5). Although the core competency of low-cost airline players is low fare/low cost, they have regional characteristic, which means only few airline players are recognized by customers in a certain areas. For instance, in South East Asia, Tiger Airways and AirAsia are the two recognized players by customers. In conclusion of the analysis of Porters five forces model, the outcome can be summarized as the following picture. Low-cost airline industry is an attractive industry, as buyers dont have strong bargaining power, which means this market is a seller market; low threats of substitutes means low-cost airline is a good choice among the products or services. Besides, although bargaining power of suppliers is extraordinary high, every player in the industry will face this problem, and because of a booming industry with high growth rate, low-cost airline industry is an attractive industry. Question 4: Value Chain Analysis Porters value chain model is a typical value chain model, which state nine kinds of business activities (Wang 2007, p81). And these business activities are classified into assistant and basic activities, which can stated as below: Wang Weijun (2007). Integration and innovation orient to e-society. New York: Springer Science+ Business Media, LLC. p81. However, this model aims at manufacture companies. Tiger Airways is in the industry of low-cost airlines, which is a service industry, therefore, the model needs to be modified based on the assumptions as follows: All the purchases are for infrastructure development purpose. Service is produced once purchase happens. Therefore, it can be seen from the case and other information from website and Tiger Airways 2010 annual reports that the value added activities are presented as follows: In the case, it is said that by 2015, 8 flights would be allocated to the new launched low-cost airline; this is the value-added activity which develops the infrastructure of Tiger Airways (Creedy 2001). In the annual report, it is stated that all new directors to the Board are briefed by Management on the Groups business activities, strategic directions, and will be sent for external training and development programmes. This is the value-added activities on manpower resource management (Annual report 2010). By this, Tiger Airways is able to make out better corporate, business level and operational strategies for the long-term development of the company and sustain the cost advantage as well. According to the media release of Tiger Airways, in 2010, by partnering with Honeywell, the company installed advanced 3-D weather radar enhance safety and passenger comfort. This can be viewed as a value-added activity based on technology development (Tiger Airways.com 2010). The annual reported stated that by renewing contracts with airports, ground services, providers and other suppliers, and purchased two aircrafts from Airbus (own rather than lease), enabled Tiger Airways to further reduce operating cost and in tune increase value to customers (Annual report 2010). According to the website, extra service is provided such as luggage upsize, seat selection and as well as related service, for example, hotels, insurance and car hire to enhance the types of service that customer can enjoy through Tiger Airways. There are many other business activities done by Tiger Airways, which enrich the value of service provided by Tiger Airways and gain wide recognition among customers, this is the exact reason helps Tiger Airways be one of the leaders in South East Asia to provide low-cost airline service. Question 5: Common Cost-cutting Strategies According to many literatures, there are many different kinds of cost-cutting strategies, for instance, rationalization, standardization, central processing of transactions, technology application and cost management strategy (OBrien Datta 1989, p165). Therefore, related to low cost carriers, the common cost-cutting strategies can be presented as follows: Rationalization. To low cost carriers, non-value-added activities are removed and only do those value-added activities remain. For example, there is one rule in Tiger Airways that only is purchased food or drink is allowed. Standardization. Another strategy is to standardize the service of low cost carriers. It can be seen for Appendix 4 that the service of Tiger Airways is standardized, as extra services will be charged by a certain price. Central processing of transactions. Crucial processes are identified by low cost carriers that need to be focus on to provide the basic service to their customers. Technology application. New technology can be applied to reduce operational cost and even reduce the proportion of risk. As mentioned above, the 3-D weather radar is applied by Tiger Airways to increase the accuracy of weather prediction to reduce unnecessary loss by reason of bad weather (Tiger Airways.com 2010). Cost management strategy. This strategy is used by low cost carriers to understanding the factors that affected the cost such as fuel, labour, distribution, inventory management, purchasing, and foreign exchange (IATA Training Portfolio). Take Tiger Airways as an example, the two main business regions are South East Asia and Australia. Therefore, the foreign exchange rate between AUS Dollar and SGD is a factor that cannot be neglected Another evidence stated in Tiger Airways 2010 annual report that by renewing contracts with airports, ground services, providers and other suppliers, and purchased two aircrafts from Airbus (own rather than lease), enabled Tiger Airways to further reduce operating cost. Three Future Strategies The strategies will be given according to Ansoffs product/market matrix. Source: Berger Roland., Kotler Philip., Bickhoff (2010). The Quintessence of Strategic Management. London: Springer Heigelberg. p36. Market Penetration. To Tiger Airways, it should use activities such as advertising, sales promotion to increase seat occupancy rate, which in turn will reduce the operating cost, this is the way to build strong core competencies. Market Development. It is evident in the case that market development is a suitable strategy for Tiger Airways to reduce operating cost and company development (Creedy 2001). By adding new airlines through joint ventures with other airline companies, it will give Tiger Airways have chance to benefit from advantages of other airline companies. Diversification. There are two main types of diversifications, related and unrelated diversification. Thus, To Tiger Airways, the company may use related diversification strategy to expand its business, such as to international express business. Through this strategy, the company can reduce the operating cost. References: Angwin Duncan., Cummings Stephen., Smith Chris (2007). The strategy pathfinder: core concepts and micro-cases. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. pp121-122. Annual report (2010). Chairmans statement. http://www.tigerairways.com/news/Annual_Report_2010.pdf [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] BBC (2010). Thailand red-shirts set out new conditions. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8671991.stm [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] BBC UK (2010). Are standing seats a standing joke? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8779388.stm [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] Beamish Karen., Williams John (2008). Analysis and Evaluation. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd. pp76-77 Berger Roland., Kotler Philip., Bickhoff (2010). The Quintessence of Strategic Management. London: Springer Heigelberg. p36 Caneval Ventures. Models on the dynamics of innovation. http://www.caneval.com/vision/innovation/innovation2.html [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] Collis J. David., Montgomery A. Cynthia (2005). Corporate strategy: a resource-based approach. New York: McGraw-Hill. P8. Creedy, S. (2001), Tiger Airways to start Thai low-cost airline, The Australian, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/tiger-tostart-thai-low-cost-airline/story-e6frg8zx-1225900253006 [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] Dunn Graham (2009). Low-cost carriers: Ready for battle. http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/04/21/325429/low-cost-carriers-ready-for-battle.html [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] IATA Training Portfolio. Cost Reduction Strategies. http://www.iata.org/training/courses/Pages/talf02.aspx [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] Kourdi Jeremy (2009). Business Strategy: A Guide to Taking Your Business Forward. 2nd ed. London: Profile Books Ltd. p3. Lowson H. Robert (2002). Strategic operations management: the new competitive advantage. 1st ed. Oxon: Routledge. p57 OBrien Richard., Datta Tapan (1989). International economics and financial markets. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p165. Robinson Peter (2009). Operations Management in the Travel Industry. Oxford: CAB International. p75. Tiger Airways.com (2010). Tiger Airways to install advanced 3-D weather radar; first low-cost airline in Asia to use latest technology on A320s. http://www.tigerairways.com/news/20100616.pdf [Last accessed: Dec. 7th 2010] Wang Weijun (2007). Integration and innovation orient to e-society. New York: Springer Science+ Business Media, LLC. p57. Appendix 1: http://www.tigerairways.com/sg/en/about_us.php Appendix 2: Figure 1: Airline Market Share by Type of Carrier Note: All others is primarily regional jet carriers but may include a small percentage of scheduled charter carriers. Source: M.R. Dayton, Trends and Demand in Aviation Markets, presentation at the ATCA/FAA/Nav Canada Technical Symposium, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Transportation, 2004. Appendix 3: Tiger Airways price: http://booking.tigerairways.com/skylights/cgi-bin/skylights.cgi SIA price: http://www.singaporeair.com/saa/zh_CN/Pricing/FlightCalendar.jsp

Greatest Ambition Summary Essay

Morris Lurie was born in Melbourne in 1938. He is better known for his short stories though he has written some novels too. He has won several awards in Australia for fiction. The years spent away from Australia in voluntary exile form the subject matter of much of his writing. Background/Setting The main character is a school boy whose â€Å"greatest ambition† is to be a comic strip artist. The story explores the uncertainties and trials of being an adolescent with unsupportive parents. In the short story ‘My Greatest Ambition’ by Morris Lurie, we experience the disillusionment of a thirteen-year-old boy as he tries to live a dream that he initially thought would set him apart from all others. Nu’s illusion is set up when his father calls him a â€Å"prince† right before Nu’s meeting. It was the first time that his father had complimented him throughout the duration of the memoir. Even though his father was not directly trying to give Nu false hope, the effect of this praise on Nu seemed to point him to that direction. The reference to a â€Å"prince† relates to success and fortune, which would subconsciously give Nu the impression that he would prosper and become a successful comic strip artist at ‘Boy’ magazine. The disillusionment begins when he approaches the office. Nu expects the building itself to be grand and imposing but instead he sees a very mediocre building that â€Å"looked like a factory†. He outlines his disappointment when he says: â€Å"No neon, no massive areas of plate glass, no exotic plants growing in white gravel†. Each time he repeated the word â€Å"no†, it added to his growing sense of disappointment. He also uses repetition with the word â€Å"ordinary† as he describes the details of the building, which emphasises his realisation of disillusionment. When Nu is being toured around the factory he says, â€Å"†¦I was eating an ice-cream†, which indirectly makes Nu seem more immature and out of place. This contrasts from the illusion that Nu had earlier of himself â€Å"walking to work every morning†¦with a pipe in my (his) mouth.† Since his fantasy of being a grown man smoking his pipe and going to work had turned into being a 13 year old in a ridiculous suit eating ice-cream, the disillusionment becomes a more prominent factor in the story.

Theories Explaining the Behavior of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy Free Essay Example, 1500 words

At first the Killer Clown John Wayne Gacy did not have a particular plan in his mind: he would capture, rape and kill teen occasionally, particularly when his family was away or when there was a good chance. However, when he divorced, he entered what he called the cruising years . He would often follow the teens from school, giving them a ride, providing young men at a bus station with a lift. Being a manager of a construction company he would invite the teen he hired for a sleepover or living with him for a while. In the majority of the cases the victims did not show any resistance. However, the latter murders were performed with the help of chloroform so that they would not scream. The bodies of the first 28 victims were buried in his crawl space and cemented. When there was no space in the house he buried some in his property and later disposed of them into the river. Rational choice theoryNow, it may be rather advantageous to apply some of the theories so that they could explain the behavior of John Wayne Gacy. We will write a custom essay sample on Theories Explaining the Behavior of Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The first one that will be engaged is called rational choice theory and it stipulates that every citizen in the society is entitled to an independent decision whether one will or will not follow the legal rules and regulations. It is quite understandable that such actions as murder or torture are prohibited in the social environment. However, some people might decide that they do not want to obey these restrictions and deliberately break the law. Strain theoryAccording to strain theory, there might be a conflict between the desired state that a person is encouraged to achieve as well as the means that are available for a person. Thus, as it has been shown, from the early childhood, Gacy was not able to live up to the expectations of his father. It is beyond doubt that he wanted to make him proud, but due to various reasons he could not. In spite of the fact that there was a period of time when his father openly confessed that he was wrong about his son, the psychological inertia was strong that Gacy could not help performing deviant behavior.

Chuck Yeager The Pilot Who Broke the Sound Barrier

Chuck Yeager (born Charles Elwood Yeager on February 13, 1923) is best known for being the first pilot to break the sound barrier. As a decorated Air Force officer and a record-setting test pilot, Yeager is considered an icon of early aviation. Fast Facts: Chuck Yeager Occupation: Air Force officer and test pilotBorn: February 13, 1923 in Myra, West Virginia, USAEducation: High school diplomaKey Accomplishments: First pilot to break the sound barrierSpouse(s): Glennis Yeager (m. 1945-1990), Victoria Scott DAngelo (m. 2003)Children: Susan, Don, Mickey, and Sharon Early Life Chuck Yeager was born in the small farming community of Myra, West Virginia. He  grew up in nearby Hamlin, the middle of Albert Hal and Susie May Yeager’s five children. By adolescence, he was skilled as both a hunter and mechanic. An indifferent student, he had no thought of going to college when he graduated from Hamlin High School in the spring of 1941. Instead, he enlisted for a two-year stint with the US Army Air Force in September 1941 and was sent to George Air Force Base in Victorville, California. He spent the next 34 years in the military. He enlisted as an airplane mechanic, with no thought of becoming a pilot. In fact, he was violently  airsick the first few times  he went up as a passenger. But he quickly gained his equilibrium and got into a flight training program. Gifted with better than 20/20 vision and natural dexterity, Yeager soon became a standout pilot, graduating as a flight officer in March 1943. World War II Ace Yeager was assigned to the 357th Fighter Group and spent six months training at various sites around the country. While stationed near Oroville, California, he met an 18-year-old secretary named Glennis Dickhouse. Like many wartime couples, they fell in love just in time for Yeager to be sent into combat. He was shipped to England in November 1943. Assigned to  RAF Leiston on the southeastern coast, Yeager named his P-51 Mustang the â€Å"Glamorous Glennis† in honor of his sweetheart and waited for his chance to fight. â€Å"Man, I can’t believe how fast luck changes in war,† he later observed. On March 5, 1944, just one day after he marked his first confirmed kill over Berlin, he found himself shot down over France. Over the next two months, Yeager gave assistance to French resistance fighters, who in turn helped him and other pilots escape over the Pyrenees to Spain. He was later awarded a Bronze Star for helping another wounded pilot, navigator â€Å"Pat† Patterson, escape across the mountains. Under Army regulations at the time, returned pilots were not allowed back into the air, and Yeager was faced with the likely  end of his flying career. Anxious to return to combat, he managed to wrangle a meeting with General Dwight Eisenhower to plead his case. â€Å"I was so in awe,† said Yeager, â€Å"I could barely talk.† Eisenhower eventually took Yeager’s case to the War Department, and the young pilot was returned to the air. He finished out the war with 11.5 confirmed victories, including an â€Å"ace in a day,† downing five enemy aircraft in a single afternoon in October 1944. The Army newspaper  Stars and Stripes  ran a front-page headline: FIVE KILLS VINDICATES IKE’S DECISION. Breaking the Sound Barrier Yeager returned to the United States as a captain and married his sweetheart Glennis. After graduating from test pilot school, he was sent to Muroc Army Air Field (later named  Edwards Air Force Base) deep in the California desert. Here, he joined a major research effort to develop a more advanced air force fleet. One of the challenges faced by the research team was  breaking the sound barrier.  To achieve and research supersonic speeds, Bell Aircraft Corporation (which was under contract with the US Army Air Force and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) designed what became the X-1, a rocket-engine-powered aircraft shaped like a machine-gun bullet for stability at high speeds. Yeager was selected to make the first manned flight in the fall of 1947. The night before the flight, Yeager was thrown from a horse during an evening ride, breaking two ribs. Fearing he’d be bumped from the historic flight, he didn’t tell anyone about his injury. On  October 14, 1947,  Yeager and the X-1 were loaded into the bomb bay of B-29 Superfortress and taken up to an altitude of 25,000. The X-1 was dropped through the doors; Yeager fired off the rocket engine and climbed to over 40,000. He broke through the sonic barrier at 662 miles per hour. In his autobiography, Yeager admitted the moment was a bit anticlimactic. â€Å"It took a damned instrument to tell me what I’d done. There should have been a bump in the road, something to let you know you’d just punched a nice clean hole through the sound barrier.† Later Career and Legacy News of his achievement broke in June 1948, and Yeager suddenly found himself a national celebrity. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, he continued to test experimental aircraft. In December 1953, he set a new speed record, reaching up to 1,620 mph. Moments later, he spun out of control, dropping 51,000 feet in less than a minute before regaining control of the aircraft and landing without incident. The feat won him the Distinguished Service Medal in 1954. With only a high school education, Yeager was ineligible for the astronaut program in the 1960s. â€Å"The guys didn’t have a hell of a lot of control,† he said of the  NASA program in a 2017 interview, â€Å"and that, to me, isn’t flying. I wasn’t interested.†Ã‚  Ã‚   In December 1963, Yeager piloted a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter to 108,700 feet, nearly at the edge of space. Suddenly, the plane went into a spin and hurtled back towards earth. Yeager struggled to regain control before finally ejecting at just 8,500 feet above the desert floor. From the 1940s until his retirement as a brigadier general in 1975, Yeager also served as an active duty fighter pilot, with long stints in Germany, France, Spain, the Philippines, and Pakistan. Civilian Life Yeager has kept active since retiring more than 40 years ago. For many years,  he test-piloted light commercial planes for Piper Aircraft and served as  a pitchman for AC Delco batteries. He’s done movie cameos and been a technical advisor for flight simulator video games.  He is active on social media and continues to play a role in his non-profit, the General Chuck Yeager Foundation. Sources Yeager, Chuck, and Leo Janos.  Yeager: an Autobiography.  Pimlico, 2000.Yeager, Chuck. â€Å"Breaking the Sound Barrier.†Ã‚  Popular Mechanics, Nov. 1987.Young, James. â€Å"The War Years.†Ã‚  General Chuck Yeager, www.chuckyeager.com/1943-1945-the-war-years.Wolfe, Tom.  The Right Stuff. Vintage Classics, 2018.â€Å"The Crash of Yeagers NF-104.†Ã‚  Yeager the NF-104, 2002, www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/NF-104A_crash_site.htm.