Jump seated a few times on Concorde and got to fly the sim for a while.. surprised at the initial cruise altitude coming across the pond was in the low 40s and we cruise climbed to about 52 or so. Never got near 60,000.

Some of the old 'white glove' captains preferred to hand fly Concorde all the way while others did use the autopilot. The F/E was the busiest making sure the fuel shift took place at the proper pace. Colder than ISA and Concorde could accelerate faster than the fuel shift and warmer than ISA, the fuel shift could occur faster than the acceleration. The whole idea was to make sure there were NO flight control deflections which translated to drag. And with an engine loss at Mach 2, it wasn't that big a deal to handle (at least in the sim) but the big problem was moving fuel forward to ensure proper CG for handling as the airplane slowed.

No speedbrakes on Concorde but the inboards could be reversed in flight.

Damn nice machine.. and a very interesting design. Amazing thing is the Brits and the French were able to work together to design it, build it and fly it.

FWIW, the Capt I flew with had more than 5000hrs at Mach 2...one of the original guys who checked out on Concorde. School was about 6 months long two IOEs, one for 'normal ops' and one for cold wx/light weight ops.