The experiment and FE analysis of ultimate behavior of GFRP cylindrical shell structure stiffened by steel pipe ring instead of rectangular cross-section ring was presented. Four kinds of test models were designed and flexural failure experiment was performed to investigate ultimate behavior characteristic according to the size of cross section of steel pipe ring and diameter of GFRP shell. Material properties of specimens were experimented by bending, tensile and compressive test. Displacements and strains were measured to evaluate failure behavior of steel pipe ring and GFRP shell structure. The experimental results were compared with the FEA results by commercial program ABAQUS. It is observed that GFRP shell structure stiffened by steel ring have enough ductility to bending failure, and an increase of bending rigidity of steel ring is very effective to increase of failure strength of GFRP shell structure.