The development of a portable, single component Doppler global velocimetry (DGV) head, based around a wavelength-stabilised argonion laser and a fast digital image-processing system, is described. The normalised two-dimensional DGV image, in which intensities are linearly related to velocities, can be displayed and updated at the 25 Hz camera frame rate, greatly easing the problem of system alignment. The effect of each individual system component upon the velocity resolution achieved for the system as a whole is discussed, and correction factors are calculated to account for the finite aperture and field of view of real systems and for divergence of the illuminating light sheet. Axial velocities of up to 100 m/s in a straight duct flow have been measured, demonstrating an rms velocity resolution of 2.5 m/s. The potential of the technique for gas turbine applications has been demonstrated by measuring the position of a shock in a transonic flow. At a Mach number of 2.3 and mass flow rate of 0.79 kg/s the velocity change across the shock was measured to be approximately 130 m/s.