Abstract: A finite element model is developed to analyze the stability of composite shells of revolution with thet ransverse shear effect . Transverse shear st rain is int roduced into the st rain vector to take t ransverse shear deformation into account . To avoid shear lock , the one point Gauss integral method is used to compute the stiffness. Thegeomet ry stiffness is deduced by St ricklin method. The stability problem is generalized to an eigenvalue problem atlast . The examples show that the critical load of isot ropic or composite shells of revolution will decrease when considering the t ransverse shear deformation. The influence of t ransverse shear is small on isot ropic thin shells , but alittle big on composite shells. The influence of t ransverse shear on isot ropic thin shells is smaller than on compositeshells.