Charles M Brown: Diode arrays should create wide new options for vehicles. Diode arrays should be more scalable, autonomous, and adaptable so more types of vehicles can be made. Cheap energy from diode arrays should make vehicle gas millage performance unimportant. SUVs should run cheaply. Public and private busses, taxis, and jitneys can operate inexpensively with little need to come to a maintence base. Perhaps the railroad network could be a social infrastructure open to autonomous users. Then people could travel the rails without driving. Recreational vehicles will also have low travel expense. Diode arrays and the associated electromechanical drives should be less toxic than present vehicle power systems so people can live in vehicles without health risks. Strong reliable vacuum grips could easily fasten a building to a low flatbed transporter. Cheap energy will allow the air in vehicles and buildings to be both fresh and comfortable. Houseboats will also travel cheaply. If fishing boats can work cheaply, than fish resources have to be managed by experts rather than the sheer ability to catch fish. Some people will want ultra compact motor scooters. Small enclosed vehicles can transport people through uncomfortable weather. Diode array powered vehicles can travel deep within buildings from business station to home reception area because they are unobtrusive with little noise and few fumes. Diode array energy could run wheel and undercarriage cleaning stations so these vehicles would be clean.
Diode array performance will probably be adequate for flying vehicles. June 2006 Popular Mechanics has an article on daring people who fly in minimal flying suits. One has sustained level flight with hobby jet engines and a special cape. Diode arrays could make that more practical.
Cheap energy should also render vehicle construction materials inexpensive. Cheap reliable transceivers would keep people in diverse locations in touch. Cheap and reliable radar and lidar should protect people from collisions and bad weather.
Balloons are a simple, quiet, and inexpensive way to climb into the atmosphere. Diode arrays can add power to control the balloon's movement. Ammonia can be shifted between a pressurized liquid and a gas to alter the buoyancy of the balloon. Hydrogen in separate envelopes inside the ammonia envelope can provide buoyancy efficiently and pitch and attitude control.