Indeed, PhilipG, hence my discomfort with the statements
'there was no standard for wheel to hook distance' and '
wire trampling and whipping is a well appreciated phenomenon' so close together in this context.
As for not getting it to work, well, it is only a hook and we've been building them for years. In this case, though, there a set of unusual constraints: the mainwheels are long way back because of the size of the weapons bays and the hook has to have a low RCS when stowed (presumably it doesn't matter so much when its lowered
). The first of these makes it comparatively short and places the shoe close behind the mainwheels. As it's a Naval variant, the hook needs to be agile too in order to keep the ship's landing rate up.
None of that is to say that you're not right to ask the 'what if' question, PhilipG.