Abstract Gas-dynamic effects, broadly interpreted to include gas-kinetic phenomena as well as macroscopic attributes, are largely responsible for governing the performance and behavior of chemical lasers. A number of topics may be identified as ones where gas dynamicists may make substantial contributions in this area. While the subject of nonequilibrium, chemically active flows is not new, the need for relatively accurate representation of local flow conditions with regard to the optical properties of the laser medium places heavy demands on both the theory and experimental aspects of some of the topics. Rotational and translational relaxation may be important under some conditions. Extension of existing methods in kinetic theory accounting for chemical reactions and radiation can be profitably explored further in this connection, probably with the BGK approximation. Measurements of the characteristics of the laser radiation and other methods may be employed to provide additional information on relaxation phenomena in chemical lasers. In premixed, pulsed systems, the possibility of instabilities in the medium resulting from local regions of accelerated combustion has been virtually unexplored, with respect to chemical lasers but could have significant consequences for those devices. The use of detonations and blast waves has not been fully exhausted for initiating reactions in chemical lasers. For diffusion-type chemical lasers employing transverse, high-speed flow, there is justification for new experimental research at a range of levels, even for laminar flow. For turbulent flow, there is much to be done to achieve even an adequate representation of the details of the flow. Second-order closure methods in the theory are being developed for these problems, but require guidance from carefully conceived experiments. Transitional flows exhibiting large-scale structure and the recently observed characteristics of a distorted interface may be of interest and could require a substantial departure from conventional methods of treating mixing layers. Low Reynolds number nozzle flows may be investigated further with benefit to chemical lasers of the diffusion type. Progress in these topics, among others, seems likely to pace the realization of the performance potential exhibited by chemical lasers.