I wonder if anyone recognizes this engine and/or plane -- this is posted in a "For Sale" ad on RCGroups.  This is the only info in the ad ...

"Rare roselli and frey engine C/L SIZE 44

In great shape roselli and frey engine with rc adjustable throttle and baffle on the exhaust.125.00"

I remember hearing briefly of an engine with that name or something like it.  The pictures look like the Fox .36 Carrier Special with a Perry Carb (or could be a TWA, but I think the sandcast case looks more 'Fox'y).

The numbers near the tail look like (?)4474.  Maybe someone recognizes the plane.

I'm just curious - I'm not interested in buying the engine.  But maybe someone would have some more info on 'Roselli and Frey'. 

I agree. The prop driver looks like a K&B baffle piston 35 part, or actually the whole front end assembly might be K&B. The RAF (Roselle and Fry) engines were either being developed with Fox finances, or Fox bought out the ill-fated project. The RAF engines looked like they were trying to be TWA copies, but the TWA's I've seen had better looking castings than RAF's or Foxes. Don't know about the "44", but if you have the engine in hand it's easy enough to measure the bore and stroke.

I agree. The prop driver looks like a K&B baffle piston 35 part, or actually the whole front end assembly might be K&B.

Good call, the gussets etc on the front end do look very K&B. 

Something else I just remembered/noticed/ realized. The Fox case casting has been milled off such that there is no boost port on the front side of the case. The mystery engine appears to have a boost port, or at least provision for one. The mystery engine also has a thinner back plate than the Fox.

In the late 1960's Jerry Roselle and Jack Frye, members of the Dayton Buzzin' Buzzards Model Airplane Club, developed a bar stock .65 piped engine for "D" Speed. They set some records just shy of 200 mph. They also did a "B" but it wasn't as successful.

Jack pushed the idea to commercialize their success. Thus RAF, Roselle and Frye, was established to make high performance engines. Their first product was a .40 in order to capitalize on the popularity of R/C F1 Pylon racing. They got another Buzzards club member to make the match plates for the case and managed to get some castings. Bill Keller became involved in the development process.

Along the way, Jack did make other engines from the basic .40 case. He was sort of a Henry Nelson in that regard. Thus, the carrier motor.

The RAF project never really got any traction. The engines simply never performed well enough to compete. Somewhere along the way Jack managed to get some development money from Duke Fox. Eventually, Duke pulled the plug and took RAF's assets. There were enough cases to make some engines that were sold under the Fox brand.

In addition to C/L Speed, Jack was part of the Frye Brothers drag racing team that ran a twin engine rail dragster. Jack passed away a number of years ago.

Both Jerry and Jack helped me get a start in Speed flying. Jerry is still living in Vandalia, OH and usually makes an appearance at the annual Cold Cash Speed Bash.

As Wayne indicated I have owned a couple of RAF engines. Bill Keller and I got the "B" Speed plane and I also had a development .65 with a cast case and Super Tigre front and rear ends. The "B" eventually went to a collector in France and the .65 went to another collector.

Hope this helps.

Mike, Ilooked for the ad. I assume someone grabbed it.? Ah yes, another page out of the classic carrier age. Love it!
Wayne

I cannot add much to what Bob Heywood explained above.  I was in Dayton when Roselle and Frye decided to produce various versions of their speed engines and was a bit involved with some of those activities.  Their main commercial endeavor was to produce engines for the RC pylon racers.  I worked on several pylon ships that were test beds for those racing engines with a top pylon pilot there in Dayton to fly them.  To make a long story short, Roselle backed out of the endeavor, Fox got financially involved, the engines would perform but were not consistent and Fox took the equipment and parts to Arkansas and marketed several versions based on the RAF cases.

While Jack Frye was working on these engines, he produced one .40 with timing for stunt for me to put in an airplane.  This was in 1972.  At the time, it was one of the few rear exhaust stunt .40's in existence.  Jack made a muffler for this so it could be completely enclosed in the nose.  The muffler made the engine run quiet and actually, the engine gained as much as 200 rpm when coupled with that muffler.  That airplane/engine placed 10th at the 72 Nats.  The shaft broke sometime later and efforts to get another shaft set up never materialized.

Jack Frye did make up some drawings of each of the engines planned for production.  In addition to the racing .40 with rear exhaust, rear intake, there was the stunt 40 with the front intake, a .36 for profile carrier with a front intake, a .60 for speed. and others.  Plans were to produce engines for pattern RC, Racing RC, speed, carrier, rat racing, stunt, and combat. a .15 was planned. There was an advertisement for these engines that appeared at least once in Model Airplane News, Jul 73.  These were based on the RAF record setting B and C speed jobs.  It is unfortunate that the potential of these engines never materialized.

Keith