JEFFERSON — When the airplane took off, Don Nass knew the flight would be a short one. The nose was dipping fast and altitude was dropping.
He looked across the way and saw his buddy’s plane on fire, but still sailing through the air.
The flight lasted only seconds. Then he and his friends collected their model airplanes they “flew” off the high school roof.
“During the war (World War II) when I was in high school, they had a pre-flight class. I was not a good student, but I loved that sort of thing,” he said, adding that his friend set his model on fire for effect.
Three years later, the toys were gone. On March 12, 1945, Nass found himself in a B-29 bomber heading for Japan.
“You have fighters coming at you 300 mph,” he recalled.
At 93, Nass talks about that time in great detail. He remembers the oil smell the new bomber had. How quiet the inside was with chaos happening outside the windows.
And on Sunday, he had a chance to do something that he hasn’t in almost 75 years — sit in the gunner seat of a B-29.
“When I got in there, I almost cried,” he said.
The bomber had a layover in Janesville before flying to the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh early Tuesday, and Nass was able to go inside.
Climbing around the B-29 today is a bit different, Nass said. It takes a while to get from the front to the back of the plane. During his time in the
