Smart skin, a multi-layer structure of composed or different materials, was designed and fabricated. Tests and analyses are conducted to study the characteristics of its behavior under compression and bending loads. The designed smart skin failed due to premature buckling before compression failure. It was confirmed that shear moduli of honeycomb core affect structural stability of smart skin. A new test method and device were designed fur better measurement of shear moduli of honeycomb core. Numerical prediction of structural behavior of smart skin by NASTRAN agreed well with experimental data.