AbstractWe present the motivation, instrument concept, hardware descriptions, and initial validation testing for a Doppler wind lidar (DWL) system that uses optical autocovariance (OA) in a field-widened quadrature Mach–Zehnder interferometer lidar to measure Doppler shifts from atmospheric-aerosol-backscattered laser light. We describe system architectures for three different generations of the direct-detection aerosol Optical Autocovariance Wind Lidar (OAWL) system, including the current two-line-of-sight, dual-wavelength (355 and 532 nm) airborne configuration, designed to be an airborne demonstrator for potential space-based global wind measurement applications. We provide meter-per-second-precision results from a ground-based 355-nm OAWL aerosol winds measurement validation study alongside another DWL, results from an autumn 2011 airborne validation testing performed with radar wind profiler data, and wind measurement results from airborne validation flight testing using the 532-nm wavelength in spring 2016.