Binyamin Kahane (Hebrew: בנימין כהנא), 5 March 1911 – 30 October 1956, was an Israeli Air Force officer and pilot who was killed during a reconnaissance sortie.

Binyamin Kahane was born in Jaffa in what was then the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, an administrative district of the Ottoman Empire, to a family with roots in the First Aliyah (immigration) from Belarus.

On his website "Air Space" that specializes in aviation history, Avinoam Misnikov cites that in April 1938, at the gliding camp of Children Village, Kahane reached an altitude of 1,250 feet above the point of origin while flying a Chaika glider.

To that effect, the Pilots Club Tel Aviv was established, and an RWD-15 single engine plane was purchased in Poland, using contributions from the Jewish community.

Most importantly, the air link saved the plant from surrendering during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War directly causing the factory to remain inside the Israeli border.

[citation needed] As a former member of the Irgun, it was not easy for Kahane to be accepted in the newly formed Israeli Air Force as a pilot.

From the second half of 1948 Kahane was attached to Squadron 35, based at Ekron, where he flew the UC-64A Norseman, with sorties also to the besieged Sodom, thus completing a personal circle.

Kahane was excluded from some activities, for example, Operation Shnunit in June 1954 (rescue of the crew and commandos off a stranded Israeli Navy near the Saudi coast).

This was reflected in letters he wrote to his friend Zvi ("Gammy") Rin, also a former Irgun member, who in 1950 left Israel to study in the United States.

What happened next is described in the citation of the Medal of Courage Kahane received posthumously for his heroism: Part of Operation Kadesh, during hostilities in the Sinai, Capt.

Binyamin Kahane served as a liaison pilot with the task of maintaining communications link with a reconnaissance patrol operating 12km ahead of its main force that was advancing to the Kuntila police camp.

One enemy plane had to leave the scene becoming short of fuel, while the other finally hit Captain Kahane’s Piper and shot it down just before departing.