The documented history of mechanical failures in the A3D / A-3 showed a rate well above average. While there were magazine articles that conjectured that the safety problem was compounded by assigning weaker pilots to slower jets like the A-3, during their heyday, Skywarrior pilots were often "best-of-the-best" and were, with few exceptions, senior pilots with a minimum of 1,500 hours jet time, due to its critical nuclear strike mission and the difficulty of bringing such a large plane aboard, especially at night on the smaller carriers. Originally, the Skywarrior bombers were assigned to all attack carriers, which included: the World War II-era and the (just) postwar "Midway" class.