Discontinued Centuri 1974 Plastic Nose Cones?

The question came up on Y.O.R.F. - 
Why did Centuri discontinue some of the plastic nose cones in 1974?
Some posts wondered why later run kits included longer nose cones, instead of the shorter ones shown in the catalog and face card pictures.

These plastic nose cones were introduced in 1971 and were revolutionary for their time.
Where other vendors sold plastic nose cones with a glued in shoulder base, the Centuri nose cones had "snap-in" shoulders allowing the nose cone to be used as a small payload section.

My response posted on Y.O.R.F.:
The discontinued nose cones might have had something to do with the "snap-in" shoulder base.
The shorter nose cones were more prone to cracking when snapping in the shoulder.
The shorter cones (minus the shoulder) could have been kept in some designs that didn't require the snap in base.



Centuri had to add an addendum to the kit instructions explaining how to either carefully snap in or glue the base into the nose cone.







Here's a Centuri nose cone showing the interior snap-in groove from my Centuri Screaming Eagle build from 2014: CLICK HERE