Try reading the first few pages here. All yoru questions are answered and then some. Here are the cliff notes.
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A broiler is a generic term for a chicken bred specifically to be used for meat. The terms vary regionally where you may see fryers, roasters, broilers, cornish game hens, etc. all used as terms for the end product. They are all broilers.
A ranger is also a broiler, but they have been bred to be more suitable for outdoor, or partially outdoor production - rather than intensive indoor climate-controlled broiler barns. They are often colored, rather than white in plumage.
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Nothing you can make yourself will match commercial broilers in production. All commercial broilers are hybrids, which means you cannot rebreed them and get the same offspring as the parents.
Historically, the modern Cornish Cross was developed by crossing Cornish cockrels on Plymouth Rock pullets. 50 years down the road now and neither of the parents breeds used for making broilers look a thing like the original breeds.
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It is very costly to raise your meat this route, especially if you confine yourself to raising purebred heavy breed cockrels. The economics are bad, it takes 15+ weeks to get your meat birds ready, flock management becomes a PITA as you need to feed your broilers separateyl from your standing breeding/laying flocks, etc. You are generally better off buying organic free range birds.
.... but if you really want to do this, you seem to generally have the right idea from above. You need to make your own hybrids. The most common backyard route is to use Cornish roosters on whatever hens you may have in your flock, then eating all the offspring. They will grow considerably better than purebreds. I have a Dark Cornish rooster I use for this and have crossed him on barred rocks, sussex, black sex links and broilers.
Another clever route to go would be to start making your own Black Sex Link hybrids, which are a RIR rooster on a Barred Rock hen. You know from day 1 which the males are so you can feed them on a broiler regiment, then save the hens for replacements in your laying flock. In my brooders and growing pens, the Black Sex Link roosters often become the dominant males early on becuase they do grow more quickly being hybrids.
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This is a very contentious issue. Many members here and producers raise the Cornish cross on pastures in chicken tractors. Many do just fine. It's just always struck me as wrong, though, raising these birds and somehow being 'ethical' simply because we've thrown them on a bit of grass.
There are some very good alternative broilers out there which are not the jumbo giant Cornish X's which prosper outdoors.
