The purpose of the project WIND (wind infrared Doppler lidar) is the development of an airborne conical scanning CO2 Doppler lidar in French-German cooperation by CNRS/CNES and DLR. The instrument and its peculiarities are described. Measurements of the Doppler shift from a moving platform with an accuracy of 1 m/s require instantaneous access to the position data of the platform. Therefore this part of the instrument is described in detail. Ground-based tests, airborne tests and a validation flight were performed. The instrument can be used for me- soscalic meteorology to test models and contribute to a spaceborne Doppler lidar in the future. © 2001 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engi- neers. (DOI: 10.1117/1.1335530)