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The present paper treats a supersonic panel flutter of simply-supported symmetrical laminates with a delamination. The panel flutter characteristics of composite laminates are obtained by a finite element method based on the Mindlin plate theory and a quasi-steady aerodynamics based on the linearized piston theory in this paper. The penalty function method is adopted to ensure the displacement continuity condition at the delamination front, and the linear spring model is also adopted to describe the effect between the delaminated surfaces. The panel flutter boundary is obtained by solving the eigenvalue equation as the flutter equation. The validity of the present method and the effects of the size and location of a delamination on the panel flutter characteristics of laminated plates are examined through the numerical results. 56 656 2008 9