The failure modes of the composite fuselage frame under axial compression are studied through experiments, and compared with the engineering theoretical calculation and finite element analysis. The frame configurations of experimental study includes “C” frame and “Z” frame. The test results show that when the composite fuselage frame and skin structure bear the axial compression load along the direction of frame, the skin occurs local buckling first. With the increase of the load, the web and inner edge of the frame also occur local buckling, which eventually leads to the failure of the entire frame section. For local buckling of skin,the buckling engineering method of laminated plates with two loading sides simplified-supported and the others clamped-supported is used to analyze the local buckling of skin. The analysis results show that the engineering theoretical calculation is in good agreement with the experimental data, and theoretical calculation values are conservative. For thin-walled structures such as frame webs and frame inner edges, the boundary support is weaker than the simple support, which results in unconservative engineering theoretical calculation. In order to obtain more accurate local buckling results of web and inner edge of frame, geometric nonlinear finite element modeling analysis is necessary.