It certainly is an impressive piece of kit. I remember getting a jumpseat ride in one a few years back from ABZ-LHR. The captain explained to me during the taxi out to Runway 35 that we would be using full power on take-off.
The rocket-like take-off run was in the region of 1800 feet and we managed a climb rate of around 5000 ft/min!
Amazingly our crusing level for this flight was FL410! We were there for about 2 minutes.