A computational study is conducted on thin airfoils to simulate flows of Reynolds numbers between 104 − 105 to provide understanding and guidance for micro air vehicles and other low Reynolds number designs. The computational fluid dynamics tool utilized in this study was a Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes solver with a Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model and a correlation-based laminar-turbulent boundary layer transition model. Two-dimensional computational simulations are performed to understand and study the unsteady behavior of a 2% thick flat-plate undergoing a harmonic pitching (no plunging) around the quarter-chord under incompressible flow conditions. Pitching amplitudes were limited to 10 degrees to ensure there was no effect of dynamic stall. The focus of this study is to characterize unsteady aerodynamics based on reduced frequency; which was varied between 0.001, 0.01 and 0.1. The baseline flat-plate was compared against the NACA 0012 and a 6% cambered flat-plate for a representative kinematic condition. Owing to the dearth of experimental studies in this Reynolds number regime, comparisons were made to Theodorsen’s theory where applicable. It was observed that there was an interplay between kinematic unsteadiness and flow separation from a flat-plate at these low Reynolds numbers. © 2018, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.