In order to probe into the feasibility of CTAB surfactant as drag reducer, an experimental investigation was made on the characteristics of the shearing viscosity and drag reduction for the CTAB aqueous solution by using a circular pipe with 5 mm diameter. The results show that C16TABr/NaSal aqueous solution belongs to a non-Newtonian fluid, the 'SIS' and shear-thinning phenomena are obvious, in the C16TABr/NaSal aqueous solution, which mass fraction of surfactant is 1.0 × 10-4, 2.0 × 10-4, 3.5 × 10-4, 5.0 × 10-4 respectively, the critical Reynolds number is 4800, 6100, 8900, and 13500 and the maximum drug reduction rate is 56%, 58%, 63% and 68% respectively, cross- flow range is enlarged compared to Newtonian fluid.