Richard Lawrence (Dick) Collins (1933–2018)

Richard Lawrence (Dick) Collins was a prolific author and journalist of aviation matters. He was the editor-in-chief of Flying magazine, the world’s most popular aviation magazine. He authored more than a dozen books and more than 1,000 articles, with special emphasis on aviation safety.

Dick Collins was born on November 28, 1933, in Little Rock (Pulaski County) to Leighton Holden Collins and Sarah Aloysia Banks Collins. His older brother, George, was born in 1931. His father founded Air Facts magazine in 1938 in Little Rock, for which Collins, under the mentorship of his father, wrote his first aviation article in 1947 at age thirteen. Collins did not have formal training but developed his writing skills over many years by the guidance and tutelage of his father.

Collins received his flight instructor credentials when he was nineteen years old. Two years later, he served in the U.S. Army for two years.

He married Ann Terri Slocomb around 1963; the couple had three children.

Following his army service, he flew for the Ben Hogan Company for two years and then Central Flying Service until he joined his father at Air Facts in 1958. There, he polished his writing skills for ten years before joining Flying magazine, where he became editor-in-chief in 1977. He moved to AOPA Pilot magazine as publisher and editor in 1988. In 1993, Collins returned to Flying magazine as an editor at large, where he wrote a monthly column and many features. At the time of his retirement in 2008, Collins had been on the masthead of an aviation magazine since 1958.

Collins was a lifelong safety advocate. In 2000, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) awarded him the association’s Platinum Wing Award for lifetime achievement in aviation journalism. NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen wrote, “By writing about the experience he gained through approximately 20,000 hours of flying, much of it in his famous Cessna P210, Dick Collins shared his knowledge with thousands of fellow light plane pilots, thus making our industry safer. Dick’s life and body of work reflect the journalistic excellence and integrity, combined with a deep love and passion for aviation, that made his writing special.”

In 1965, Collins received the Flight Safety Foundation’s Sherman Fairchild Award. In 1978, he won the Earl D. Osborn award from the Aviation and Space Writers Association, and he was named to the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 1988. Collins also was an honorary member of the Flying Physicians Association, Lawyer Pilots Bar Association, and Civil Aeromed Association.

Collins died on April 29, 2018, at his home in Frederick, Maryland. His wife had died five years before.

For additional information:
Arkansas Aviation Historical Society Collection. Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. Finding aid online here (accessed August 27, 2025).

“Richard Collins.” Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame. https://arkavhs.com/index.php/hall-of-fame/richard-collins/ (accessed August 27, 2025).

Richard N. Holbert
Little Rock, Arkansas