The South American capital laid out in a shape often compared to an airplane is Brasília, Brazil.
Brasília was purpose-built as Brazil’s federal capital and inaugurated on 21 April 1960, replacing Rio de Janeiro. Urban planner Lúcio Costa’s winning plan used two intersecting axes: the Monumental Axis forms the central “fuselage,” while the curved Residential Axis is often imagined as the wings.
The comparison is not a literal aircraft outline in every detail. The plan has also been likened to a bird or dragonfly, but the airplane description is the standard quiz and travel-writing shorthand. At the eastern end, Praça dos Três Poderes represents the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.
Oscar Niemeyer designed many of Brasília’s famous government buildings, including the National Congress and the Cathedral. The city’s modernist architecture and unusual urban plan led UNESCO to list it as a World Heritage Site in 1987.