Abstract: The effects of the powder metallurgy and alloy steel counterpart on frictional behaviour of airplane brake pairs were introduced. Frictional and wear tests of imported and self-made brake pairs were made.The results show that under the condition of designing landing and service operation, the frictional coefficient of the brake pairs with powder metallurgy counterpart is higher; under the condition of rejected takeoff, the frictional coefficient of the brake pairs with alloy steel counterpart is higher. For designing landing, the wear of frictional material paired with alloy steel counterpart is much more than that of frictinal material paired with powder metallurgy counterpart, and for service operation, their wear is the same. The difference of the frictional and wear behaviour was analysed. The main reason is that there are more pores and graphites in the powder metallurgy counterpart material.