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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_NC-135

From 1975 to 1984, the US used a NKC-135 for its Airborne Laser Lab (ALL) program. The modified NKC-135 A carried 10.6 micrometre green diode laser. Tests included successful interceptions of small AAM's such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder and drone aircraft. Despite the combat potential of the system, it was kept strictly experimental. However, the SCUD threat faced during the Gulf War reignited the US's interest in an airborne laser system, resulting in the Boeing YAL-1.

Boeing has been flogging this boondoggle for at least 35 years. One of the smaller annoyances of growing older is that one has to endure a never ending series of bullshit "firsts" and refurbished presentations of old ideas with the same inherent flaws.

The airborne laser still has the problem it has always had, which is that when one fires a chemical laser it produces a rocket-like exhaust that automatically destabilizes the firing platform if not carefully dealt with by zillions of dollars' worth of intricate design, materials, and computing.

the main problem with this one was the laser didn't have the power it needed to meet all the design goals (distance from target limitation). Now maybe the power limitation was due to the issue you mention?

The program appears to have had two objectives at first, one as a defense system for combat aircraft to deal with incoming missiles, the other apparently being a component of an anti-ballistic missile system, which itself appears to have been part of a larger "Star Wars" style anti-missile system being developed by the US in the 1960s (and promptly forgotten and started anew at ridiculous expense by Reagan and the Bush locusts).

One of the objections to the original program, I recall, was that it pretty obviously violated the ABM Treaty, back when we cared about such things.

The original green laser did an okay job of proving the feasibility of defending a plane from incoming missiles, but the overall objective of killing the control and detonation systems of incoming nuclear ballistic missile warheads was unlikely to be reached with the green laser.

The apparatus itself was, I believe, originally the size of a Winnebago, including enormous storage tanks for the hypergolic chemicals which, if not properly contained, would explode on contact with one another, probably with enough force to knock over hangars on the other side of the airfield.

Only a fraction of the energy created in that reaction is converted to the laser beam. The rest manifests as a high-temperature exhaust not dissimilar to the rocket exhaust of an Me-163 Komet, which was also powered by hypergolic chemicals. If it were all vented out the back of the Boeing, I wouldn't be surprised to learn the acceleration might rip the wings off of the plane. Imagine trying to vent the exhaust of the Space Shuttle in such a way that it doesn't go anywhere at all, and you'll have an idea of the overall problem of the device, albeit on a smaller scale.

I recall seeing a cutaway model of this version at a technology demonstration on Capitol Hill around the turn of the millennium, and the size of the new COIL laser was not markedly different from the previous one I recall seeing on some news show--maybe 60 Minutes?--in the 1970s. I assume, therefore, that the power of the laser was effectively limited by the size of the platform on which it flew.

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Yeah, have a gander at your wasted tax dollars:
https://www.google.com/search?q=tucson+boneyard&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=qRtPT_LRDNPUgAf09JTlDQ&sqi=2&ved=0CFEQsAQ&biw=1081&bih=609