Tenente Silvio Scaroni (12 May 1893 – 16 February 1977) was an Italian World War I fighter pilot credited with 26 victories.

[4] He began training to fly Bleriots and Caudrons[6] shortly before Italy entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente on 26 April 1915.

As he himself described it in a magazine article he penned for Nel Cielo, his airfield was attacked by ten enemy bombers.

[11] Italy had a racing team entered; they had come with such expectation of victory that they had smuggled celebratory Chianti in their seaplane floats in violation of America's Prohibition.

When they had engine problems, Scaroni suggested switching American spark plugs and gasoline into the Italian planes.

[12] Circa 1934, as part of this mission to China, Colonel Scaroni established a flying school for the Chinese Air Force at Luoyang.

This was done to ingratiate the Italians to the ruling class parents of the flying cadets, and to undercut the popularity of a previously established flying school at Hangzhou, which was staffed and run by Americans to stricter United States Army Air Corps standards.

[citation needed] The Italian mission also set up an aircraft manufactory to produce Fiat fighters and Savoia-Marchetti bombers under license.

[citation needed] Scaroni published his memoirs as Impressions and Memories of Aerial Warfare,[4] as noted below.