My thought on the initial question would be the fly-by wire system, hailed revoultionary when introduced on the Airbus A320 family in the 80´s. To all intends and purposes the Vulcan was a fly-by wire. Analogue, but still fly by wire!

Reading Aeroplane Monthly’s article about engines for the mighty Hughes HK-1 flying boat it says that the engine throttles were “a primitive ‘fly-by-wire’ system” using servo motors.

Roger Smith.