The company that he founded and which bears his name - Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co - is today one of the world's leading sailplane manufacturers.
He also learned to fly, and in 1926 won a major prize in the annual gliding championships held on the Wasserkuppe.
He used this money to found his own company, beginning in the Huhnrain dance hall, and later at a rented workshop in Remmerz.
Schleicher continued to design aircraft for the firm until the outbreak of World War II, and again when German civil aviation resumed in 1951.
[citation needed] During the years of the Allied occupation, he returned to his roots and designed furniture for the company to manufacture.