Originally Posted by
fauteuil volant
My comments on size related, principally, to the depth, rather than the width, of the fuselage. Whilst making no admissions as to the assertion that, a century ago, people were generally slimmer, I don't think that the same can be argued for their height and, more specifically, their leg length. But I suppose it can be argued that the pilot may have sat with his legs in a horizontal position - or even that it was flown by a prone pilot!
I had a moment of realization in a museum when I saw the flying jacket of a WW II USAAF pilot. It was tiny. USAAF pilots had to be graduates, so they would not be malnourished. They were just smaller than now. As for leg length, some of us can remember the first Japanese cars that were exported. Excellently made and well equipped, but, except when they made a special effort for export, designed for people significantly smaller than in the "West" (scare quotes because I was in Australia, and hence the South, at the time). Now, not so much of a difference. Even over a couple of generations, people have got a lot bigger in skeletal frame, and this is from four generations ago.