By specializing to the case of unit Lewis number and Prandtl number equal to ¾, a number of general results for the structure of a plane steady compressible flow field, within which chemical energy is being liberated by a simple Arrhenius type of combustion reaction, can be acquired by the use of elementary arguments. The field is of the semi-infinite variety, with a ‘flameholder’ presumed to exist at the origin of coordinates. In these circumstances it is necessary to specify the velocity gradient at inlet to the system or, equivalently, the pressure difference across the field. These quantities cannot be selected arbitrarily, and the nature and extent of the restrictions upon them is fully explored. Since the Mach number of the stream is hypothesized to be a quantity of order unity, local Damköhler numbers are always small. Therefore the field is shown to consist of relatively long regions within which the combustion activity takes place, with embedded thin domains of rapid, almost chemically inert, gasdynamical adjustment, whose dimension is typically that of the conventional shock wave. When the inlet Mach number is less than unity the gasdynamical adjustment domains are always adjacent to the origin, and this is also true under most supersonic inlet conditions.

However, there are some special circumstances for which the shock is detached from the flameholder and is established in the middle of the combustion activity. A specific example is provided by a shock within the induction domain.

These special circumstances are shown to be ultrasensitive to pressure difference across the whole domain. It is also shown that wholly supersonic combustion does exist, but only under similar conditions of extreme sensitivity to pressure difference.

The general arguments are supported and illuminated by asymptotic analysis based on the large activation energy of the Arrhenius reaction. Space precludes a full asymptotic treatment of the combustion activity but a companion paper that analyses these parts of the general field is being prepared in collaboration with D. R. Kassoy. Analysis of the shock within the induction domain, together with results from the case of subsonic inlet Mach numbers, shows that gasdynamical effects can prevent ignition by channelling combustion energy into kinetic energy of the flow at the expense of thermal energy.