SKY'S THE LIMIT EXPERIMENT TESTS THEORY THAT WIND POWER BUILT PYRAMIDS.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

QUARTZ HILL - A gusty breeze and a parachute customized into a kite demonstrated in an Antelope Valley field a Reseda businesswoman's theory of how wind power could have built the pyramids.

Guided by a professional kite-surfing instructor from Santa Barbara, the red, white and black nylon kite pulled a mountain-climbing rope through pulleys attached to a steel scaffold, hoisting upright a 6,900-pound, 16- foot-tall concrete obelisk.

``We're doing this experiment with concrete and ripstop nylon,'' said Maureen Clemmons, hugged by well-wishers Saturday after the obelisk was erect. ``We want to start replicating this with hemp rope and linen and maybe a windlass instead of pulleys.''

The new goal: a 20-ton obelisk, wooden scaffolding made from telephone poles and rope loops in place of pulleys, said California Institute of Technology aeronautics professor Mory Gharib, who took up Clemmon's quest two years ago as a technological challenge.

``We'd like to show that primitive technology maybe can harvest wind power,'' Gharib said.

Spurred by a 1997 Smithsonian magazine article about a contemporary attempt to raise an Egyptian obelisk by manpower, Clemmons has spent four years trying to show that Egyptians could have used kites rather than muscle power to hoist giant stones.

That assertion draws scoffs from professional Egyptologists, who say there is no evidence that Egyptian builders used anything higher-tech than ramps and muscles.

But in Egyptian art Clemmons finds images of oddly-shaped wings, connected by lines to men with upright arms - kite-fliers, in her view, using a technology that could be used to raise stones.

``It's a heck of a lot easier lifting them with wind than it is pushing or pulling them,'' Clemmons said.

To raise money, the 44-year-old hair-care entrepreneur and management consultant launched a perfume line called Ala - Latin for ``wing,'' and sold in a pyramid-shaped bottle - with sales of more than $10,000 last year. She also dropped $20,000 out of pocket for materials, including the kite and lines.

The volunteer crew she had around her Saturday on the windswept, grassy brown slope below Portal Ridge included family, the Caltech professor and students, friends and other people who just got swept up into the project.

The reinforced-concrete obelisk and steel scaffold, for example, were made by Daniel Correa, who read about Clemmons' quest in a 1999 Time magazine article and called Caltech to offer his services. His San Diego company, Incablock, makes concrete blocks.

``That was up my alley,'' Correa said.

The kite flying was done by kite-surfing instructor Eric May and Caltech engineering student Emilio Graff. Clemmons recruited May on a getaway with her husband to Santa Barbara, after spotting him at the beach teaching people to ride boards pulled by giant kites.

Saturday's lift was halted after just a few seconds with the obelisk just shy of vertical when the kite hoisted the 170-pound May about five feet off the ground.

May and Graff spilled the wind out of the parachute canopy and with the other crew reset the kite out on the ground for a second lift.

After May yelled ``Take two!'' to the crowd, the kite rose, made a quick swoop to the left - ending up draped over an onlooker's parked car - and tugged the obelisk the rest of the way to vertical.

Saturday's feat was actually the third time the kite has lifted the obelisk, but it was the first time with an audience - a dozen or so reporters, photographers and television cameras.

``We've done this a couple times before we invited the press,'' Clemmons said.

The kite does not lift the 3.4-ton obelisk vertically, but acts almost like a sail as it tugs on the rope threaded through the pulleys. The pulleys multiply the force so only about 500 pounds of pulling power is needed.

A mechanism on the rope stops the obelisk from falling back as the rope slackens and tightens from the kite's maneuvers.

May estimates the kite is powerful enough without pulleys to lift a Volkswagen Beetle.

``This kite is overkill,'' Gharib agrees.

Gharib said other experts dismissed the kite idea, calculating that a kite would have to be unmanageably large to create enough power.

But the lifting power is not derived from the kite's steady pull, Gharib said. Instead it comes in spurts as the kite swoops back and forth in front of the wind: The first impulse from wind hitting a surface is about four times stronger than a steady pull, Gharib said.

``It's not just steady kite flying - it's impulse,'' Gharib said.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color -- ran in Valley edition only) Reseda businesswoman Maureen Clemmons celebrates a successful obelisk lift Saturday in Quartz Hill with team members Eric May and her son Sean.

(2 -- 3 -- ran in Valley edition only) A giant kite is launched into the air during an attempt to raise a 6,900 pound obelisk using wind power Satuday in Quartz Hill. Maureen Clemmons, below left, originator of the theory that wind power was used to erect Egypt's pyramids, checks the wind speed before the experiment.

(4 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) Reseda businesswoman Maureen Clemmons, originator of the theory that wind power was used to erect Egypt's pyramids, celebrates a successful obelisk lift Saturday with team members Eric May, son Sean, and Daniel Correa.

(5 -- color -- ran in AV edition only) A kite flies high during an attempt to raise a 6,900 pound obelisk using wind power Saturday in Quartz Hills.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer