Hi Jan… I think 43 inches width is indeed pretty good and plenty enough if the designer used it intelligently. I don’t think its always necessary to have adjustable seats or pedals – especially if the instrument panel is ‘out of the way’ enough to allow for knees high or knees low depending on length of legs.
After dark today (yesterday for you) I was out with a friend in his DA40-180 with Garmin G1000 panel. While its clearly a very nice aircraft, and especially so at night, comfort from the standard seating is just awful for my body: not enough head room and seat backs that in no way match the curve of my particular back. So I think comfort in any given aircraft is a very individual thing. Seating, ergonomics and use of interior space is very interesting to me because I’ve noticed the best answer isn’t always evident until you play around a lot.
It is not only cabin width but also height..
my commander is 47" wide.and 49" high.
Two people my size fit very easy and I am 6ft6 and broad shoulderd..
http://rockwell-commander.tripod.cjom/why.htm
Krister,
Surprising that Mooney is wider than the rest of the narrow bodies. Is there any difference between earlier M20 versions and the long bodies or are they all the same?
I had read about it but never verified it. It did surprise me too. According to the sources I found yesterday, they all are the same width.
172 driver
I don’t really know where in the cabin these measurements are taken,
They are out of either the company sites for most of them, or from online POH’s. I did not take non official statements. Normally, they are taken at the widest point across the front seat row, from what I saw in the POH’s, most of the cabins however don’t have that but are simply the same width along the seats.
I can tell you that for me (188cm / 6ft 2") the 152 is torture and the TB 20 very tight
Really? I am 1.88 myself and far too fat and I have flown both. The 152 is certainly not very comfortable but it’s width is larger than the 150 I used to own. Yet, you better know the person well which sits next to you 
. The TB20, I flew it and found it as good or better than the Seneca on which I have about 100 hours. And the Seneca is really wide enough for people even to change seats in flight…
Height is a different story. However, there are huge differences in the height as well as how high the seats are. Clearly, the Cessnas have huge cabins in terms of height and also baggage compartments which make you think you can move much more in them than what is healthy. Mooney’s cabin is much lower, yet the seat is very low too (like a deck chair really) and therefore I have no problem sitting in it. Yet, in the much larger cabin of the Robin HR 100 (for which I did not find data, but I’d think it must be in the 42" range in width) I hit my head on the canopy.
Pilot DAR
bq. Not that it changes your point, but the C 150 could have any of three different widths, they were widened over the years
The figure I posted comes from the 1979 manual.
Commander
my commander is 47" wide.and 49" high.
Thanks for that. Unfortunately I can’t change my original post anymore to accomodate that but it went into my database now.
I agree the cabin height is a very important part as well as the distance between the seat cushion and the ceiling. The latter however is difficult to obtain, nobody I looked at has this data in their POH.
Peter, how difficult would it be to make posts editable for the poster indifinitly? We have it in some other forums and in cases like this, where you get new data and might want to add them, it would be nice.
A while ago I did a similar comparison of leg room for back seat passenger. I noticed that early Piper 28’s back seats seem to be for luggage only, and passengers without legs, unless the front seat person is short and can have the seat far forward. The single with most legroom for passengers was the Cessna 177 Cardinal.
Peter, how difficult would it be to make posts editable for the poster indifinitly? We have it in some other forums and in cases like this, where you get new data and might want to add them, it would be nice.
This has come up before a few times. You have a 2hr edit window. This “should” be easily sufficient to read the posting, correct errors, etc (like needing any quoted text as a standalone paragraph i.e. with a blank line before and after it ) and maybe add text.
There are perhaps 2 reasons for having a defined edit window:
Mooney,
They are out of either the company sites for most of them, or from online POH’s. I did not take non official statements. Normally, they are taken at the widest point across the front seat row, from what I saw in the POH’s, most of the cabins however don’t have that but are simply the same width along the seats.
That’s what I was getting at, at what point int the cabin are they taken? I guess you’re right, the manufacturers are going to use the widest possible point…. I think one of the factors that make Cessna cabins feel wider than others is the fact that the doors go straight up to the wing root, so there is no inward sloping as in the Pipers.
Your edits won’t be seen because, a few posts later in the same thread, almost nobody participating in that thread is going to go back and notice your updates
That’s a very valid point. If some new data relevant to a thread come up, just re-post them, possibly with a reference to the original post.
I believe it’s easier to change the pilot’s width than the airframe’s width. At least you don’t need an STC for your personal weight reduction! 
Achim
At least you don’t need an STC for your personal weight reduction!
Ah but what a lovely excuse that would be!
Anyway, here’s the cabin height figures I could gather in short notice.
Dry cabin height as by manufacturers (I’ll go alphabetic this time)
AA5 46" 116 cm
Bonanza 50" 127 cm
C150 46" 117 cm
C172 48" 122 cm
C182 48.5" 123 cm
C210 49.5" 126 cm
C400 49" 124.5 cm
Commander 49" 124.5 cm
SR20/22 50" 127 cm
M20 44.5" 113 cm (seat to ceiling figures I found vary between 39 and 40", I’ll measure it once I get the plane back to ZRH)
PA28 45 " 114 cm (38" / 96 cm seat to ceiling)
PA32 48 " 123 cm (38" / 96 cm seat to ceiling)
PA46 47" 120 cm (38" / 96 cm seat to ceiling)
TB20 44" 112 cm
TB20GT 47" 120 cm
Here the differences are a maximum of 6" / 15 cm between the smallest (TB20 and the largest Bonanza/SR22). It also confirms that Cessnas are generally quite high but not the highest, which surprised me. Mooney, PA28 and TB20 are roughly in one ballpark with 44-45".
However, for seating comfort, the headroom (seat to ceiling) would be really the measure to take. The only headroom figures (seat cushion front seat to ceiling) I could find is for the Pipers, and some forum posts for the Mooneys so here is where you guys come in. If you want to help, I’d be glad to enter your figures in the table and in the end post the lot here. If you have POH figures, perfect. If not, we’d need to measure. For this, slide the front seat into the flying position, then measure from the CENTER of the seat to the ceiling straight up. The height of the seat can change quite a lot here and I know that there are quite some differences between a Mooney “deckchair” and e.g. a Cessna 210, which is quite high.
The Cessna 182, PA28 and Bonanzas have 42 inch/107 cm cabin widths
Well, such data is very hard to compare because an airplane cabin is not a rectangular box. For the C182 there are two different widths depending on the year and it is much wider than 42" because this value is measured at the doorpost which is between the two rows and the narrowest point of the cabin. Also when looking at the TB20 you have to keep in mind that it has a middle console which takes space so even though you might sit nicely apart, your horizontal expansion is limited by that console (I never understood why it is there, maybe it has rear wheel drive?).
