Group Captain Kenneth Gilbert Hubbard OBE DFC AFC (26 February 1920 – 21 January 2004) was the pilot of an RAF Vickers Valiant bomber which dropped Britain's first live thermonuclear weapon (H-Bomb) in Operation Grapple in the Central Pacific Ocean in May 1957.

Kenneth Gilbert Hubbard was born in Norwich in Norfolk on 26 February 1920,[1] the son of Gilbert Claud Hubbard, a mechanical engineer and professional association football player who played for Norwich City, and his wife Florence née Dack.

[2] After the outbreak of the Second World War, Hubbard joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) on 21 June 1940.

[3] His citation noted that he had "taken part in many attacks in close support of the Fifth and Eighth armies and against marshalling yards in the Po valley.

One night in May 1944 he participated in a special low-level attack on an important railway bridge in north Italy.

[2] While on leave in the United Kingdom, Hubbard married Beatrice Daphne Taylor on 19 January 1946.

In October he was posted to Empire Air Armament School at RAF Manby as a flying instructor.

He returned to the Middle East in April 1951, as commander of RAF Shaibah during the Abadan Crisis,[2] for which he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1953 New Year Honours.

His request was granted,[7] but he was first sent to RAF Strubby for an all-weather jet refresher course, flying the Gloster Meteor,[8] then to No.

49 Squadron was assigned to Air Vice Marshal Wilfrid Oulton's Operation Grapple Task Force to conduct nuclear tests at Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean as part of the British hydrogen bomb programme.

[1] From the bomb developers' view, the device turned out to be a failure; its yield was estimated at 300 kilotonnes of TNT (1,300 TJ), far below its designed capability.

[2][17] His aircraft, Vickers Valiant XD818, is now on display in the Royal Air Force Museum at RAF Cosford.

His final appointment was Group Captain Training at HQ RAF Transport Command.