Interior upgrade - Leather or Fabric

CMongoose

CMongoose

Pre-takeoff checklist
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CMongoose
Most of the interior upgrades I see posted recently are leather, and I have to admit the luxury car type leather upholstery is appealing to put a new lease of life on an old interior.

However, I'm trying to think through the practicalities if leather vs. cloth. So two questions.

For those of you with leather interiors, how bad is the heat issue in the summer for a plane without air conditioning? Do you wish you had leather instead?

Has anyone seen any cool seat upgrades using cloth that doesn't look like it was designed in 1980? I love the concept of the airtex cloth interiors, but most of the designs on their website look quite dated, unless I'm missing something.
 
I've seen some quite nice leather and suede jobs.
 
I had the seats in my Cessna done in leather about 11 years ago. In the summer, I used one of those spiral wire seat cover things if I was going to be spending any time down low in the summer.
 
Trying to remember of a single complaint uttered by an owner who put in leather......no, cannot recall one.
 
I have leather in my 80 Saratoga. Zero complaints.
 
Some of it depends on if you need flame or just flash resistance. There's a fabric that was recommended to us called Brisa. It's got the feel of leather, nearly impossible to tear. And in our desert southwest climate it does not get uncomfortable in the sun. It's very comfortable.
 

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gov98 said:
Some of it depends on if you need flame or just flash resistance. There's a fabric that was recommended to us called Brisa. It's got the feel of leather, nearly impossible to tear. And in our desert southwest climate it does not get uncomfortable in the sun. It's very comfortable.
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https://www.ultrafabricsllc.com/about-us
looks great but ? I wonder what the flammability is? it is a man made poly
 
gov98 said:
Some of it depends on if you need flame or just flash resistance. There's a fabric that was recommended to us called Brisa. It's got the feel of leather, nearly impossible to tear. And in our desert southwest climate it does not get uncomfortable in the sun. It's very comfortable.
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That looks sharp!
 
Mine is Ultraleather which is a polyurethane product. Looks like leather but more uniform and better fuel resistance.
 
Leather all the way! I love mine..it does feel hot on the back in the middle of summer. But other than that it cleans so easy..so when the greasy Mechanic leaves hand prints on the seat it wipes right off. On cloth...well it's there forever.

You won't regret it!
 
I was given the choice. More than once. Leather's too slippery for me. I much prefer fabric for breathabity and "stick-tion'". I recently dropped off the seat frames for my next airplane seats. My instructions to the upholsterer? Fabric. Never any question.
 
Nothing is as good as opening a door to a proper leather job with a fresh hide food treatment.

Next would be some type of cloth.

Pleather is the bottom, fake leather is right up there with fake wood trim, just call your local hot rod shop up, take a razor knife and put it out of its misery.
 
I can't imagine spending that much money on an interior and not installing leather. The previous owner installed a fabric interior in mine and I much rather it had been leather. Dog hair loves the fabric.
 
New interior.... one of any number of things I want to do to my plane. Seats are flat. Makes my butt rather unhappy after an hour.
 
I don't get the passions for leather - hot in summer, cold in winter, not breathable and slippery. Even if the costs were the same, I would choose (a high quality) fabric.
 
German guy said:
I don't get the passions for leather - hot in summer, cold in winter, not breathable and slippery. Even if the costs were the same, I would choose (a high quality) fabric.
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I think that's part of what I'm having difficulty with. I see all the leather substitutes listed above, but what does a high quality fabric aircraft interior look like these days? So many of those that I've seen look very dated in their design and fabric.
 
image.jpeg Synthetic leather is easy to maintain and won't absorb moisture from wet dogs, dead animals, or fish. My interior side panels use syn leather at the lower 2/3 and the same seat fabric above and for the headliner. My fabric seat surfaces are comfy and durable.
 
We own four airplanes. On the one that we put the interior in we chose cloth. I HATE sitting on hot leather (AZ). We have two with cloth and two with leather now. I dread getting into the leather ones on a hot day. If I remember I'll post some pics of our leather as I do feel it's quite modern and good looking... especially coming from the bright 1980's red that we had!
 
Leather with sheepskin seat covers is the most comfortable to me.
 
I wanted the look, durability, and stain tolerance of leather but wanted to minimize perspiration on my back. So had the seats covered with leather and added fabric covered memory foam lumbar support cushions: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B019HZCOOI/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The support improves comfort and the air space above and below the cushion provides some cooling. It is still hot at the cushion, and I suspect that I will want to replace the cushion after enough cycles of absorbing my sweat. But it's easier to replace than a sweat-infused fabric seat back.
 
I'd guess that I have seen around a 1000 crew seats so far in my career, maybe one or two ships had leather touching the crew"s back & butt. Armrests on the other hand are leather. Even a few multi million dollar biz jets had cloth seats in the cabin.
 
kyleb said:
Dumb question: If you have sheepskin covers, what does it matter whether the seats are leather, cloth, vinyl, or a plastic trash bag?
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Well, in my case, the plane already came with leather...but that aside...IMHO sheepskin is far more comfortable. It breathes way better, is cool in summer and warm in winter. If you get a stain, tear, or the cover simply wears out you simply replace it. Otherwise you'd have to reupholster the seat. It also keeps the wear on the leather down to a minimum. To really answer your question, if you want the leather one day, take 5 seconds and remove the cover. Best of both worlds. And I do love leather.

Really though, my primary reason is the heat. Down here in CA summers, hot leather seats are brutal - even in the shade they retain and transmit a lot of heat.
 
3 in the green said:
Well, in my case, the plane already came with leather...but that aside...IMHO sheepskin is far more comfortable. It breathes way better, is cool in summer and warm in winter. If you get a stain, tear, or the cover simply wears out you simply replace it. Otherwise you'd have to reupholster the seat. It also keeps the wear on the leather down to a minimum. To really answer your question, if you want the leather one day, take 5 seconds and remove the cover. Best of both worlds. And I do love leather.

Really though, my primary reason is the heat. Down here in CA summers, hot leather seats are brutal - even in the shade they retain and transmit a lot of heat.
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Where'd you get the covers from? 300 bucks per from Aerosheep?
 
ircphoenix said:
New interior.... one of any number of things I want to do to my plane. Seats are flat. Makes my butt rather unhappy after an hour.
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I bought the leather hides at Tandy in the colors I wanted and then took them to a local upholstery shop. My seats were flat as well and I had a list to starboard for some reason. I told them to add bolsters to the seats and what a difference it makes. I'll never go back to cloth. Next will be the side panels which will be vinyl with leather accents.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I bought the leather hides at Tandy in the colors I wanted and then took them to a local upholstery shop. My seats were flat as well and I had a list to starboard for some reason. I told them to add bolsters to the seats and what a difference it makes. I'll never go back to cloth. Next will be the side panels which will be vinyl with leather accents.
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Just pulled the seats and took 'em down to an upholstery shop? What was the turnaround on that?
 
A week but only because they had to order matching vinyl for the backs of the seats and they had to send a leather panel to get digitized and embroidered with the Piper logo.
 
As an added bonus with leather, it retains that new airplane smell compared to 40 year old stank.
 
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