Silvio Scaroni - Later Life

Later Life

Scaroni attended the Schneider Trophy air races in November, 1926 as part of his duties as Italy's Air Attache to the United States. The race was held just outside Washington, D.C., in the Chesapeake Bay. 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. That solved their engine woes.

Italy sent a military mission to aid the Nationalist Chinese government in 1933. Circa 1934, as part of this mission to China, Colonel Scaroni established a flying school for the Chinese Air Force at Loyang. Its policy was to graduate every pupil. 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 Hangchow, which was staffed and run by Americans to stricter United States Army Air Corps standards. The mission would remain in China until 1936. Scaroni would serve there through 1937.

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

During World War II, Scaroni commanded the Italian air forces in Sicily.