Gentlemen,
I am new to this thread, and indeed to Pprune. PBL pointed me at this fascinating Concorde thread and I think I may be able to throw in a few points from the point of view of one of the original design team.
It may take a while because there are so many interesting aspects, so I propose to start with early postings and work through. My apologies if this results in some duplication!
I suspect I may have worked with some of the major contributors.