Langley was born in Kansas and raised in Oklahoma. At the time of the 1900 United States Census, he was living with his parents, Franklin and Charlotte Langley, on the family's farm in Woods County, Oklahoma. Before attending the University of Michigan, Lanley was a "critic teacher" in the preparatory department of Northwestern Oklahoma Normal School. Langley received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Michigan in 1908. While attending Michigan, he played football for Fielding H. Yost's Michigan Wolverines football team from 1904 to 1907.