"... Didn't the MiG-17's see combat over, eeerrrrmmm......the Straits of Taiwan, when they clashed with Sabres in.....'58? Any idea how this dispute ended?"
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"... The United States Eisenhower Administration responded to ROC's request for aid according to its obligations in the 1954 U.S.-ROC defense treaty by reinforcing US naval units and ordering US naval vessels to help the Kuomintang Nationalist government protect Quemoy's supply lines. Under a secret effort known as Operation Black Magic,
the US Navy modified some ROC air force F-86 Sabres with its newly introduced AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missile to provide an edge against more advanced PRC MiG fighters, which had an advantage over the Sabre. Recent research from the National Archives also indicates that the Air Force was prepared for a nuclear strike against the PRC. Also 12 203mm M115 howitzer long range artillery guns and other 155mm guns were transferred from US Marines to ROC Army and sent to Quemoy/Kinman to help turn the tide of the artillery duel there. The PLA believed that the Taiwan/ROC and US forces had begun to use nuclear weapons on them.[1][2][3]
The Soviet Union dispatched its foreign minister, Andrei Gromyko, to Beijing to discuss China's actions.
On 22 September 1958, the Sidewinder was used for the first time in dogfights with 32 Sabres against over 100 MiGs. Faced with a stalemate, and having run out of artillery shells on the PRC side, the PRC government announced decreasing bombardment level on October 6.
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Conservapedia.com]:
"... Along with MiG-15s, Chinese MiG-17s took part in several conflicts over the Taiwan Strait. The Frescoes first saw action against the Nationalists, which flew F-84 Thunderjets and F-86 Sabres, during the Quemoy Crisis in 1958. The conflict also marked the first appearance of the Chinese-built J-5. The appearance of MiG-17s in Chinese hands came as a surprise to both the Nationalists and the Americans, and prompted the United States to ship several AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, which had only recently become operational in American units, and the missile saw combat for the first time in Nationalist service.[11]
In spite of several victory claims, there's no evidence that any Sabers were shot down by the MiGs, although one Saber was lost in a collision (a "Fox four") with a MiG-17 that also went down. Frescoes did manage to shoot down three Thunderjets.[12] Nationalist Sabre pilots are credited with downing 25 MiG-17s (ironically, no Frescoes fell to Sidewinders).[13] ..."
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Wikipedia - Sidewinder]"
"... The first combat use of the Sidewinder was on September 24, 1958, with the air force of the Republic of China (Taiwan), during the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis. During that period of time, ROC F-86 Sabres were routinely engaged in air battles with the People's Republic of China over the Taiwan Strait. The PRC MiG-17s had higher altitude ceiling performance and in similar fashion to Korean War encounters between the F-86 and earlier MiG-15, the PRC formations cruised above the ROC Sabres, immune to their .50 cal weaponry and only choosing battle when conditions favored them. In a highly secret effort, United States provided a few dozen Sidewinders to ROC forces and a team to modify their Sabres to carry the Sidewinder. In the first encounter on 24 September 1958, the Sidewinders were used to ambush the MiG-17s as they flew past the Sabres thinking they were invulnerable to attack. The MiGs broke formation and descended to the altitude of the Sabres in swirling dogfights.[8]
Compromised technology
The Taiwan Strait battles inadvertently produced a new derivative of Sidewinder. Shortly after that conflict the Soviet Union began the manufacture of the K-13/R-3S missile (NATO reporting name AA-2 'Atoll'), a reverse-engineered copy of the Sidewinder. It was made possible after a Taiwanese AIM-9B hit a Chinese Communist MiG-17 without exploding, the missile lodging itself in the airframe of the MiG after which the pilot was able to bring both plane and missile back to base. According to Ron Westrum in his book "Sidewinder", the Soviets obtained the plans for Sidewinder from a Swedish Air Force Colonel, Stig Wennerström, and rushed their version into service by 1961 copying it so closely that even the part numbers were duplicated, although none of the known Soviet sources mention this. Years later, Soviet engineers would admit that the captured Sidewinder served as a "university course" in missile design and substantially improved Soviet and allied air-to-air capabilities. In 1972, when the Finnish Air Force started using Sidewinder (AIM-9P) in their Saab 35 Draken fighters, they were already using Soviet -made Atoll in their MiG-21s; Finns found the two so similar that they tested Sidewinders in MiGs and Atolls in Drakens ..."