Instincts are just a subset of genetically driven behaviors. When the behaviors are useful or beneficial they propagate. If they are detrimental the are selected against. The ones that survive thousands of generations are the ones we call instincts.
Kinda-sorta. Instincts are not just gene centered behaviours. There is an entire cascade of interrelated causal factors, and these vary from instinct to instinct and animal to animal. Everything from brain structures to gut behaviours. Potentially microbiota even play a role.
While it's clear we don't understand everything about instinctual behaviours and how they evolve, it's also clear genes do have a strong role. It's also clear that instinctive behaviours are part of the evolutionary process.
For instance, use of gene editing/deletion has been show to modify or eliminate certain instinctual behaviours in animals like fruit flies, worms and mice: Open questions: Tackling Darwin’s “instincts”: the genetic basis of behavioral evolution
Other research has shown that certain instinctive behaviours can be triggered by something as simple as light stimulation of certain brain tissue:

Lasers activate killer instinct in mice - Nature
Stimulating certain areas of the animals’ brains can trigger predatory behaviours including biting and grabbing.

Here's a short and interesting article on the role of epigenetics in turning learned behaviours into instincts:
Of course we can emulate it. It's called the air travel industry. All kidding aside, we have plenty of navigational skills without technologies, we just use them in a different fashion. (We also have no evolutionary need to fly under our own power.)
Birds do have innate guidance systems as well. Birds likely navigate long distances via the use of specialised cells in their eyes and beaks that help to pick up Earth's magnetic field. Short article: Magnetic navigation: Songbirds use the Earth's magnetic field as a stop sign during migration
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