Career
Born in Asunción on June 16, 1887 to Italian emigrants, as a young man he moved to Buenos Aires. There he contacted the aviator Jorge Newbery, who taught him to fly. On October 17, 1916, while doing an inverted loop, the left wing of his plane broke, and the aircraft crashed to the ground in a ranch owned by the Castell family, in Buenos Aires Province.
Pettirossi died instantly.
Asunción"s Silvio Pettirossi International Airport, three soccer clubs, the Airborne Brigade of the Paraguayan Air Force, a Paraguayan Air Force Base in Luque, an avenue in Asunción, the Paraguayan Institute of Aviation History, a school, and some other things are named after him.