Mad_Mark - i believe that the RAF still occasionally use this approach - i have seen in done several times but only at airshows, the RAF used to use this as their party piece at RIAT at Fairford, they used to come in at approx 4-5000 ft over the threshold at Fairford then push the nose over till it was almost vertically going down to the runway and at about 2-300 ft above the runway slowly pull the nose back so as just as the nose came to the horizontal the main's would touch down on the runway.
All i can say is that it looked very very impressive, a friend of mine has just come out of the RAF where he was in ATC and said they used this type of approach at several places in Bosnia where they flew too.
Brgds
W.G.