Bob Hoover can be seen pouring from a pitcher of iced tea into a glass set upon the glare shield while barrel-rolling a Rockwell Shrike ( a jazzed-up Aero Commander 500). This comes with a 'Warning! Kids! Don't try this at home!' label attached.
Some guys in Nigeria got a 727 over so far, perhaps not watching what they were doing while avoiding traffic, that they went in from something like 15 thousand feet in less time than it takes to tell about it. It would seem that some large transport-category aircraft can be unrecoverable from relatively modest attitudes. The author of 'Handling the Big Jets' goes into this in some detail.