Abstract Numerical solutions of the Navier–Stokes equations for the plane one-dimensional unsteady motion of a compressible, combustible gas mixture are used to follow the history of events that are initiated by addition of large heat power through a solid surface bounding an effectively semi­-infinite domain occupied by the gas. Plane Zel’dovich–von Neumann–Doring detonations eventually appear either at the precursor shock (which exists in every set of circumstances) or in the regions, occupied by an unsteady induction-domain and an initially quasi-steady fast-flame, that lie behind the precursor shock.