Duchy of Zeon Mobile Suit
MS-05 Zaku I

Pilotss /
  Gadem
  Gaia, Ortega and Mash
  Topp

The Zaku I is Zeon's first combat-worthy mobile suit. Designed five years before the outbreak of the One Year War, it's now considered obsolete and largely relegated to non-combat work.

The Zeonic Company began trial production of the MS-05A model in May of UC 0075, producing a total of 27 units. In November of the same year, a mobile suit training battalion was formed to gather performance data and practice combat manuevers. The members of this training battalion were the very first mobile suit pilots, many of whom went on to distinguish themselves in the One Year War. The most famous alumni of this training battalion alumni were Gaia, Ortega, and Mash - the famous "Black Trinary."

Based on feedback from this training battalion, a modified MS-05B version was created for mass production, and approximately 800 of these were produced. Despite its obsolescence, this classic Zaku could still be seen in the field until the very end of the war.

Two Black Trinary color schemes are shown here. The "early" one is the sea-green version they used in the training battalion days, with the colors based on an illustration in volume 115 of B-CLUB magazine. According to the manual of the Master Grade Zaku I model kit, the Black Trinary later repainted their old Zakus in their new colors for a special training assignment - this is the "later" version seen here. Topp's Zaku I appears in the 08th MS Team video series.

Illustration by Mark Simmons

Specifications

Model number / MS-05
Head height / 17.5 m
Base weight / 50.3 t
Full weight / 65.0 t
Generator output / 899 kW
Thruster /
  19500 kg x 2
  850 kg x 2
180 degree turn time / 2.9 sec
Sensor radius / 2900 m
Land speed / 65 km/h

Standard armament /
  105mm machine gun x 1 (100 rounds)

Options /
  280mm bazooka
  heat hawk

Source: Gundam 0080 Visual Comic