Abstract <p>Different approaches to model the aerodynamic performance of the airplane exist. One of the methods is to build mathematical phenomenological model. To obtain the mathematical model parameters one should use the experimental or flight data. However, these data are not very easy and fast to obtain compared to the numerical methods. That is why the use of these methods in building adequate mathematical models of unsteady aerodynamics is of high interest. The main problem is to obtain verified and validated method of numerical modelling taking into account the peculiarities of the unsteady flow past the pitching model. To reach this goal the numerical simulations of the civil aircraft model pitching motion is carried out. The three-dimensional Reynolds equations are used to describe the flow past the aircraft model. For all the test cases described in the present work, the comparison to the existing experimental data is given. Moreover, the flow fields, the streamlines and friction coefficient distributions are provided to show the flow patterns and explain dependencies of the parameters on the angle of attack.</p>