I think we can put the FL450 to bed can't we?
The FL450 claim was related to PSR and therefore not very accurate.
I haven't seen a source for the claim.
However a 777 pilot did test it out in the sim and got pretty close
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/5...ml#post8387369
However he had the wrong engines and if the post a couple of pages back is to be believed he was a tad too heavy.
Could it have got to FL450? Most probably yes. Did it? We don't know and it's not important.
If the purpose was to incapacitate the passengers then an hour at 35000ft cabin alt would do the job too.