Walter Nowotny (December 7, 1920 - November 8, 1944) was a German flying ace of World War II with 258 confirmed victories in 442 missions, 255 victories over Russian pilots.

He was born in Ceske Velenice (Gmünd), a small town on the Austro-Czech border. He joined the Luftwaffe in October 1939 and undertook his training near Vienna at Jagfliegerschule 5. The new leutnant was posted to Jagdgeschwader 54 (JG-54) in February 1941, assigned to the Eastern Front.

Flying a Messerschmitt Bf 109 he shot down his first two enemy aircraft (both Polikarpov I-153 biplanes) on July 19, and was shot down himself the same day by Alexandr Avdeev and spent three days in a dinghy in Riga Bay. In 1942 Nowotny continued to increase his successes, shooting down five aircraft on a single day in July and seven on August 2. He was shot down again on August 11 and sustained moderate damage in a crash-landing. In September he was awarded the Iron Cross (the Ritterkreuz), having achieved 56 victories. He was made Staffelkapitän in October. He reached his 75th victory in March, 1943 and his 100th in June - shooting down forty-one aircraft that month. In August he was promted to Oberleutnant, made Gruppenkommandeur, and shot down forty-nine aircraft. On September 1 he scored ten victories in two sorties. He made his 200th victory on September 8 and had his Iron Cross garlanded, and the swords added a few weeks later.

He was the first German pilot to reach 250 victories (October 15) and his Iron Cross was augmented with diamonds (the Brillanten). In October he became the eighth individual to be given the Knight's Cross with Golden Oakleaves, Swords, and Diamonds and he was withdrawn from combat duty and given a long series of propaganda activities. He had shot down 255 enemy aircraft.

He was Kommodore of JG-101, a training unit, from April, 1944. In September 1944 he was made commander of the specialist unit dubbed Kommando Nowotny, flying the new Messerschmitt Me 262 out of airfields near Osnabrück. Nowotny had achieved three victories in his temperamental aircraft (two B-24s and a P-51) before he was killed in a crash east of Hesepe. His shooting down is shared between USAAF ace Ernest Fiebelkorn and Edward Haydon.