A series of plate impact experiment with sodalime glass specimens in different thicknesses are conducted on a 57 mm diameter one-stage gas gun in order to further investigate the so-called failure wave phenomena under dynamic compressive loads. With the aid of the VISAR technique, the failure wave trajectory is explored, which shows that, apart from a constant failure wave velocity, an initial delay time for the failure wave to initiate at the impact surface of the specimen should be taken into consideration. Comparing our experimental results with the available data presented in the previous open literature shows that, with the increasing magnitude of the impact loads, the failure wave velocity increases and the initial delay time decreases. Moreover, the derived initial delay time τ=0.694 μs for the soda-lime glass specimens under the impact stress of 4.7 GPa is the same order of magnitude as that of the incubation time proposed by Morozov and Petrov (2000), which shows that the incubation time plays a dominant role in the total initial delay time, and it also provides an reasonable explanation to the fundamental question pointed out by Clifton (Appl Mech Rev 46: 540-546, 1993).