The ASW 24 was designed by Schleicher's Gerhard Waibel, with Delft University professor Loek Boermans undertaking the role of aerodynamicist.

The OSTIV Award-winning safety cockpit made use of an organic shape, tall sidewalls, crumple zones and exotic aramid fibres for crash protection.

The higher-than-usual thermalling speed revealed itself a disadvantage in the typical competition gaggles, and its performance degrades somewhat when subject to turbulence, rain or wing contamination.

However, the addition of winglets and a change to the outer wing leading edge, making it slightly blunter (both of which have been applied to many earlier ASW 24s), improved these characteristics significantly.

Notwithstanding, the aesthetically pleasing ASW 24 is a comfortable, safe and pleasant sailplane with high cross-country performance that remains competitive up to national championship level in most countries.