With regards to the situation where the airplane is "suspended" in a near vertical orientation. Expanding upon what Trebia Project mentioned, as well as some of the comments I read, there are tactical situations where this sort of maneuver might be used.
We went out to the area to engage two F-16's in air-to-air combat. Our flight was a flight of four A7-E's. The A7-E had great fuel efficiency, and that combined with a maximum payload of 12,000 pounds of ordinance, made it a formidable attack jet. Also, although it was not supersonic, it came close to Mach 1 at sea level. Breaking the sound barrier at these altitudes comes with a heavy cost in fuel. Anybody chasing us in burner is going to be sucking at their fuel tanks.
The specifications that made the A7-E such a good attack jet, e.g. long legs to the enemy target, were also the specifications that meant it was not particularly suited for air-to-air combat. Our rule of thumb was that if a fighter got behind your 9/3 o'clock jettison your stores and turn with your adversary. If you could last 30 seconds in the fight, the fighter will have used a good portion of their fuel. Their situation is more severe if they are in burner with you on the deck. I mention this to provide some context to the engagement with the F-16's.
When we flew attack missions, depending on the threat, we came in low or high. In either case, as a flight of 4, we were in a box formation. The lead and their wing man abreast at the head of the flight, while the second division was abreast one another a mile in trail. Four aircraft each at the corner of a square a mile a side. This mission was to help us train to maintain flight integrity while engaging multiple fighters. From the flight I learned it takes a lot of discipline.
In the area we soon found ourselves engaged with the F-16's. We were outmatched quickly and our box formation degraded into a circle with an A7 at each 90 degrees on the arc. Each A7 was protecting the six of the guy in front. A defensive position, without much chance to attack. I often took aircraft, with similar performance characteristics, vertically in a dog fight. The A7 can't maintain that geometry very long, and it becomes a game of chicken at some point. Who is willing to get to 0 airspeed with the nose at 90 degrees?
How did the F-16's handle the defensive position we took up? These guys both went vertical and sat above the circle using their burners to keep themselves "suspended." They were between 70 and 90 degrees, and looked like they were slowly falling forward when they would hit the burner and come back to a mostly stationary position. It was the coolest thing to watch. At some point one F-16 would drop in on our circle and try to get on the six of an A7. Of course the A7 in trail would force themselves around to an AIM-9L shot. With the increasing threat the F-16 would pull back up vertical, and the other would drop in on a different part of the circle. There was always one F-16 above the circle using their burner to stay atop the fight. They knew our energy was too low to get our nose much above the horizon.
Eventually the F-16 flight called the fight off with no kill. When we returned home and were debriefing the flight, the lead, who was a decorated Vietnam attack pilot, said "Yeah this use to happen in fights when I flew in Vietnam."