Were airline seats always this cramped? Experts interviewed by Popular Science confirm that hunch: some seats are indeed shrinking, even as passengers are, on average, getting larger. Worse still, smaller seats and fuller flights could make emergency evacuations more difficult—and potentially more dangerous. Image: Touring Club Italiano/Marka/Universal Images Group via Getty Images MarkaAmericans are getting biggerAirplane seats are getting smaller just as Americans, on average, are getting larger. “If you look at theaters, you look at automobile seats, [or] any other venue seats have gotten larger.