US aircraft manufacturers photos and photos designations systems in the 50's

bercr

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Hi
I'm fascinating by US aircraft manufacturers photos of the 50's. I know that there are plenty of treasures that were never published, mostly in colour.
I would like to know more about the photo "politics" (or usages ? I'm French and my English is poor..) used by US manufacturers of military aircraft in the 50's, the usage of B&W or colour, and the photo designation systems...
For instance, I noticed some of the codes used by Boeing or McDonnell, but who can tell us more about that ?
Boeing :
P series (Publicity ??)
BW series (Black and White, but P photos seem to be black and white too ??)
K series (Kodachrome ? colour ?)
others....

McDonnell Aircraft :
D4E series (black and white only ? What means D, 4, and E ??? )
D4C series (seems to be colour...?)
What was the proportion of colour/BW photos among the years ?

And what about other manufacturers : Convair, Northrop, Lockheed, Vought, Grumman, North American etc etc

Thank you very much for your replies

And what about famous aircraft photographers : Roy Wolford (Northrop)....Otto Menge etc
 
Photo from the SDASM Archives
Some XP-81 photos by Otto Menge in Ginter books
 

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