The Flying Thingy of Planes is a massive, cultured nation, ruled by Dan Havilliand with a fair hand, and notable for its museums and concert halls, complete lack of prisons, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic, devout population of 3.999 billion Planesians are free to do what they want with their own bodies, and vote for whomever they like in elections; if they go into business, however, they are regulated to within an inch of their lives.

The enormous, socially-minded government juggles the competing demands of Education, Administration, and Environment. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bombardier-Boeing-Airbus city. The average income tax rate is 87.8%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Planesian economy, worth 429 trillion Engines a year, is highly specialized and led by the Tourism industry, with major contributions from Book Publishing and Information Technology. State-owned companies are common. Average income is an impressive 107,303 Engines, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The phrase 'spreading like wildfire' is no longer in the public lexicon, euthanasia is legal, construction of the Really Big Hadron Collider is underway, and where there's smoke there's the Planesian Forestry Department. Crime, especially youth-related, is totally unknown, thanks to a capable police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Planes's national animal is the Syrian Hamster, which frolics freely in the nation's many lush forests, and its national religion is Airplane Worship.

Planes is ranked 206,709^th in the world and 7,458^th in The North Pacific for Most Primitive, scoring -223.62 on the Scary Big Number Scale.