In the use of pulse detonation engine (PDE), using high-energy ignition device, as compared with the traditional methods, is favorable to the reduction in delay time, rise time and deflagration to detonation distance. The experiment shows reduction in delay to ignition by factors of typically 3 in quiescence to more than 4 in a flowing PDE, and other enhancements in performance. And the further experiment shows that if the equivalent ratio of reactants is appropriate, there will be an optimum ignition energy that can make the DDT the shortest.