The Flying thing of Planes is a massive, socially progressive nation, ruled by D Havilliand with a fair hand, and remarkable for its national health service, complete lack of prisons, and punitive income tax rates. The compassionate, democratic, devout population of 3.608 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, Environment, and Healthcare. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Bombardier-Boeing-Airbus city. The average income tax rate is 88.9%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The all-consuming Planesian economy, worth 377 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 104,567 Engines, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

Kindergartners' favourite dance move is the stop-drop-and-roll, the government is spending millions on renovating the public transportation system, D Havilliand's office has a newly installed Max-Man arcade game programmed by a 5th-grader, and hypochondriacs demand treatment for genetic disorders they don't have. 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 221,344^th in the world and 8,225^th in The North Pacific for Most Primitive, scoring -198.24 on the Scary Big Number Scale.