Don Bennett

Donald Clifford Tyndall Bennett
Bennett as an Air Vice Marshal
Born	(1910-09-14)14 September 1910 Toowoomba, Queensland
Died	15 September 1986(1986-09-15) (aged 76) Slough, Berkshire
Allegiance	Australia United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Australian Air Force (1930–31, 1935–36) Royal Air Force (1931–35, 1941–45)
Years of service	1930–36 1940–45
Rank	Air Vice Marshal
Commands held	No. 8 (Pathfinder Force) Group (1943–45) Pathfinder Force (1942–43) No. 10 Squadron (1942) No. 77 Squadron (1941–42)
Battles/wars	Second World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Distinguished Service Order King's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air Order of Alexander Nevsky (USSR)
Other work	Director of British South American Airways

Air Vice Marshal Donald Clifford Tyndall Bennett, CB, CBE, DSO (14 September 1910 – 15 September 1986) was an Australian aviation pioneer and bomber pilot who rose to be the youngest air vice marshal in the Royal Air Force. He led the "Pathfinder Force" (No. 8 Group RAF) from 1942 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. He has been described as "one of the most brilliant technical airmen of his generation: an outstanding pilot, a superb navigator who was also capable of stripping a wireless set or overhauling an engine".

Donald Bennett was born the youngest son of a grazier in Toowoomba, Queensland. He attended Brisbane Grammar School and later joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1930 and transferred to the Royal Air Force a year later, starting with the flying boats of 20 Squadron. Bennett developed a passion for accurate flying and precise navigation that would never leave him. After a period as an instructor at RAF Calshot, he left the service in 1935 (retaining a reserve commission) to join Imperial Airways. Over the next five years, Bennett specialised in long distance flights, breaking a number of records and pioneering techniques which would later become commonplace, notably air-to-air refuelling. In 1936 he wrote the first edition of his The complete air navigator: covering the syllabus for the flight navigator's licence (Pitman, London) which he updated several times up to the seventh edition in 1967. In July 1938 he piloted the Mercury part of the Short Mayo Composite flying-boat across the Atlantic; this flight earned him the Oswald Watt Gold Medal for that year.