Maxwell Franklin Leslie (24 October 1902 – 26 September 1985) was a naval aviator in the United States Navy during World War II.

When the United States entered World War II, he was executive officer of Bombing Squadron 3 (VB-3) aboard USS Saratoga.

Following the Japanese destroyer Arashi that had been counterattacking USS Nautilus, Leslie and Lieutenant Commander Wade McClusky, from Enterprise, managed to arrive above the Japanese task force at the precise moment its combat air patrol had been drawn down to the deck to repel Yorktown's torpedo bombers, and at the moment of the First Air Fleet's maximum vulnerability.

With the Japanese Zeros too low to be effective, the SBD Dauntlesses of McClusky's squadron of 20 dive bombers and Max Leslie's squadron of 17 dive bombers poured down through the miraculously open sky to unload their bombs on the Japanese carriers, their hangar decks cluttered with confused ranks of recovered and warming up aircraft, snaking fuel hoses, and stacks of munitions from the various rearmament operations.

Attacking nearly simultaneously with McClusky's SBDs, Yorktown's VB-3, led by Leslie, inflicted heavy damage on Sōryū, and she also sank that evening.