any whiz kid worth half of the moniker could have programmed a better flare
Well, Airbus failed your test, they don't seem to have employed any of your whiz kids, The crew of EC-HKJ at Bilbao found the aircraft wouldn't let them flare for the landing and the aircraft was written off. The cause of the accident was the activation of the angle of attack protection system which, under a particular combination of vertical gusts and wind shear and the simultaneous actions of both crew members on the side sticks, not considered in the design,prevented the aeroplane from pitching up and flaring during the landing. The AOA protection activated incorrectly in one other known occasion, 24 September 1999, an A-320 landing in St. John (Canada). Should you think getting rid of pilots and replacing them with computers is the solution, you are only replacing pilot error with computer programing error.
Then there was the flight of F-22 that crossed the 180° longitude and promptly lost all their nav facilities, result of computer programming, fortunately they had a tanker accompanying which could lead them to landing site.
http://www.fomento.es/NR/rdonlyres/8...006_A_ENG1.pdf