Richard Dee was born in York, England, in 1963 into a family of aviators; both his brother and father served as front-line pilots with the RAF. Dee’s early career was at the British Library in Yorkshire and then in London working as an analyst during the development of the computer systems required for the British Library's relocation to the St. Pancras site.
In 1995, looking for a complete career change, he started his undergraduate studies in psychology at the University of York. In 1998 he entered the Ph.D programme at St. Andrew's University in Scotland, completing his PhD at the University of Durham in 2001. On finishing his doctoral studies Dee then moved to Toronto as a post-doctoral researcher conducting NASA-funded research into developing counter-measures for astronaut disorientation during extended space flight.
Dee's interest in aviation started at an early age, and during his post-doctoral research he began to write part-time on the subject of aviation history. He completed a manuscript non-fiction work on the parallels between Canada's Avro Arrow and the British TSR-2; two revolutionary aircraft which were cancelled during the very final stages of their flight testing. Included within the draft work was a brief description of the life and accomplishments of Sir George Cayley inventor of the airplane and the first researcher into the science of aerodynamics.. This lead to McClelland and Stewart commissioning a full biography of Cayley which was begun in 2005. Dee is represented through The Harding Agency.