Based on the rubber bladder process, the tensile and bulging forming of aluminum alloy plates was investigated, and an orthogonal experiment was designed. Then, the finite element simulation was combined with the experimental verification to explore the influences of three factors, namely, forming pressure, sheet thickness and blank holder length on the maximum thinning rate, the area of bottom surface in contact with the die and the buckling deformation. The results show that as the forming pressure increases, the increments of the area of bottom surface in contact with the die and the maximum thinning rate decrease, and as the sheet thickness increases, the decrement for the area of bottom surface in contact with the die increases, while the decrement for the maximum thinning rate is relatively uniform. When the blank holder length is 60 mm, the area of bottom surface in contact with the die reaches the minimum, and the maximum thinning rate reaches the maximum. The influence of each factor on the area of bottom surface in contact with the die from large to small is forming pressure, sheet thickness, blank holder length, and on the maximum thinning rate is forming pressure, blank holder length, sheet thickness. Buckling deformation is the process of balancing the residual stress inside the formed part, which is inhibited by larger forming pressure and blank holder length.