Airbus did not come into existence out of nowhere. It is the result of merging some companies that had some ancestry going back to the time of aviation pioneers.

It's a posterboy project for the EU and for all its insane complexities and French people, it's working! I am watching Belugas land here in Hamburg almost every day :)

Almost nothing starts from 0, its not a very smart idea to ignore generations of experience and wrong decisions.

Tesla also started with musk joining already well working EV startup, didn't it.

Nothing was "started" by him joining. Name was the same and they were already producing car(s). He did bring his skills for fraud and puffery though.