The first journey of an aircraft with an ion drive

Where the ionic wind blows IT IS NOT unusual for technologies from science fiction to join the real world, with examples ranging from video phones, via artificial intelligence, to self-driving cars. The ion drive is another such. Ion drives purportedly propelled the evil Empire's TIE (twin ion engines) fighters in the original "Star Wars" movie. Real ion drives now reposition satellites and send space probes on interplanetary journeys. Surprisingly, according to a paper published this week in Na...