Richard “Dick” Aarons.
Richard “Dick” Aarons, renowned former editor of Aviation Week’s Business and Commercial Aviation (BCA) for more than 50 years, died Dec. 11 at the age of 82.
Aarons began his career as a police and court reporter at the Philadelphia Daily News while yearning for the skies. After passing the FAA’s ground school instructor’s exam, he convinced the Flying W Airport in Medford, New Jersey, to let him exchange ground instruction for flight time, where he earned a commercial license with multiengine and instrument ratings, his family notes.
He joined BCA in 1968 as a staff editor after seeing a "Help Wanted" ad for a writer with piloting credentials while reading an old copy of BCA. He called and told the woman who answered if a vacancy ever materialized again, he’d like to know. After confirming he had the qualifications, she told him to come in on Monday and “they’ll probably hire you.” They did.
While at BCA, he held a variety of editorial positions over the years, including safety editor and twice as editor-in-chief.
“Dick was a masterly and dedicated journalist, unique in his understanding of and special ability to explain critical matters of aviation safety and technology,” said William Garvey, former BCA editor-in-chief. “There’s no doubt that his writings over five decades helped keep readers from harming themselves, their passengers and their aircraft. He was also a really fine man and a good friend.”
Over the years, Aarons authored hundreds of articles and columns and evaluated everything from trainers to turbofans. He worked with big names in aviation, such as Dwayne Wallace, Olive Ann Beech, Bill Lear, Ted Smith, Ed Swearingen and others and along the way witnessed business aviation’s transition to the turbine age.
Aarons also affected change.
After flying and giving the Beech Starship a negative evaluation, he was told that his report “pretty much killed it.”
“If you write that everything is good, no one believes you,” Aarons explained in a BCA article in 2017, where he called the Starship a “terribly flawed airplane.”
His influential story, "Always Leave Yourself an Out" (BCA, July 1973), examined the poor safety record of piston twins and changed how multi-engine training is performed.
Aarons retired from BCA in 2020. Outside of aviation, he volunteered, serving as town constable and as an emergency services photographer for police departments in Ridgefield and Redding, Connecticut. He also served as an operations instructor for the Coast Guard Auxiliary and a communications instructor for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service. He later was appointed Emergency Manager of Ridgefield, Connecticut.
Aarons is survived by his wife, Deirdre, son Michael, daughter Noelle (McNeill) and two grandsons.
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