M2Dude
Yes, 4,000 hours in Lockheed's contribution to wide-body cargo planes. The marvel in all of these planes from the '60s that they were designed by men who began their engineering careers during WW II, used slide rules and tested nearly everything in the sky. I asked a Lockheed engineer (a Canadian from the Avro Arrow program which throw off a number of engineers to the US) how many guys did the actual design work--his answer was something like 300. With GE engines, the Galaxy is finally reaching its potential. A proper plane--it has a Flight Engineer.
My one contact with the Concorde was when I flew a US corporate jet in the mid-80s for a British-American company (industrial gases, you can guess the rest) whose MD was an American who worked in London. During the summer, like clockwork, he worked in London on the Friday mornings, take the mid-day Concorde to JFK. Customs would meet him AT THE GATE, clear him and turn him over to us for the short flight to Martha's Vineyard. His wife could recognize the plane, meet us at the airport at noon for lunch. On Monday, the return trip would unfurl in reverse. NOT one bit of that story can happen today, I cannot imagine US Border officials doing such a thing.
I did hear that a Concorde did once need a engine change in Dulles.
One more question, could the Concorde lose pressurization, descend to some low level (FL180 or below, perhaps FL100) and make it to scheduled destination or would a divert to Shannon or Gander be required? What was a low level cruise speed?
I was recently at Duxford and did tour the Concorde there, amazing how small the cabin was--DC-9-like.