Work was conducted over a ten-year period to address the central issue of damage in primary load-bearing aircraft composite structure, specifically fuselage structure. This included the three facets of damage resistance, damage tolerance, and damage arrest. Experimental, analytical, and numerical work was conducted in order to identify and better understand the mechanisms that control the structural behavior of fuselage structures in their response to the three aspects of damage. Furthermore, work was done to develop straightforward design methodologies that can be employed by structural designers in preliminary design stages to make intelligent choices concerning the material, layup, and structural configurations so that a more efficient structure with structural integrity can be designed and built. Considerable progress was made towards achieving these goals via this work. In regard to damage tolerance considerations, the following were identified as important effects: composite layup and associated orthotropy/structural anisotropy, specifics of initial local damage mechanisms, role of longitudinal versus hoop stress, and large deformation and associated geometric nonlinearity. Means were established to account for effects of radius and for the nonlinear response. In particular, nondimensional parameters were identified to characterize the importance of nonlinearity in the response of pressurized cylinders. This led to the establishment of a iso-nonlinear-error plot for reference in structural design. Finally, in the case of damage tolerance, the general approach of the original methodology to predict the failure pressure involving extending basic plate failure data by accounting for the local stress intensification was accomplished for the general case by accounting for the mechanisms noted by utilizing the capability of the STAGS finite element code and numerically calculating the local stress intensification for the particular configuration to be considered. Fo...